A study on effect of NaCl stress on Kodomillet (Paspalum scrobiculatum) during germination stage

Abstract

Kodomillet (Paspalum scrobiculatum) is one of the important and neglected minor millet with high reserves of protein. The cultivation of this crop declined year by year, this situation may be due to the different abiotic stresses pertaining to low yields.  Salinity stress is one of the important abiotic factor influences the growth of the crop species at different stages of the life cycle. Seeds are very sensitive to salinity stress at germination and seedling stage and kodomillet is not an exceptional one. As there is no previous reports available regarding the response of the kodomillet germplasm against salt stress this work was taken up to identify the salt tolerant accessions of kodomillet at germination and early seedling stage.  The kodomillet germplasm was obtained from ICRISAT and NBPGR. All the test varieties were treated with different NaCl levels such as 50 mM, 100 mM, 150 mM and 200 mM for about 144 hrs. The effect of salt stress was measured in terms of percent germination, germination energy, germination index, seed vigour index, relative water content, length of radicle and plumule, fresh and dry weights of the seedlings. In addition with these the biochemical activity was calculated by estimating the proline, peroxidase (POX) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO). Among all the test varieties the accessions IC 76 and IPS 583 found to be tolerant against change in NaCl stress, followed by the other genotypes. These findings might be useful in further breeding experiments to develop the salt tolerant kodomillet genotypes.