Evaluation of Morpho-Physiological and Biochemical Attributes of Cotton under Salt Stress

The salinity level is increasing in soil due to multiple reasons like uneven rainfall areas and effects of climate change. Such increase in salinity forced the cotton breeder for the development of new germplasm suitable for saline soils. For this purpose, a set of one hundred accessions of Gossypium hirsutum was assessed for salt tolerance in hydroponic conditions at four levels of NaCl salt concentrations, i.e., control, 100 mM, 150 mM and 200 mM Significant differences were observed for morphological, physiological and biochemical parameters among the genotypes. At control, the genotypes showed enhanced growth, but some of genotypes exhibited similar performance at 100 mM as they were at normal. Whereas, response of some indices was significantly decreased at 150 mM, while at 200 mM highly significant response were noted among genotypes due to accumulation of Na+, increase reactive oxygen species levels and decreased level of K+ in leaves. K-means cluster and biplot analysis were used to identify the salt tolerance and susceptible genotypes. The accessions namely, NIAB-545, CIM595, Coker-307, FH-113, FH-942 and DNH-40 were performed relatively better across all the treatments and Na+/K+, chlorophyll contents, free proline contents and peroxidase activity were found to be effective selection criterion for salt tolerance. The identified accessions (NIAB-545, CIM-595, Coker-307, FH-113, FH-942 and DNH-40) could be exploited in breeding programs as well as among farming community for cultivation on salt affected soils. (C) 2020 Friends Science Publishers