RELATIVE SALT TOLERANCE OF SWITCHGRASS (PANICUM VIRGATUM) VARIETIES DURING GERMINATION DEVELOPMENT

摘要

In November 2010, one experiment was set up to investigate switchgrass salt tolerance in thegermination phase. Seeds of nine varieties in four replicates were exposed to solutions containing 0 (distilled water),50, 100, 200, 300 and 400 mM NaCl. The results show that seed germination characteristics and seedling biometrictraits resulted significantly influenced by salt levels, varieties and the interaction of both. Plant responses resultedprogressively worse with increasing salt levels with the exception of 50mM. At the salinity level of 50 mM NaClsome varieties developed better than control. Based on the analysis of variance and clustering, the varieties can bedivided into three groups: salt sensitive, moderately salt tolerant and salt tolerant. The most salt tolerant variety wasAlamo. The moderate salt tolerant varieties were BJ-1, Forestburg, Pathfinder, Tailblazer, BJ-2 and Cave-in-Rock.The most salt-sensitive varieties were BJ-3 and BJ-4. The response patterns of the nine genotypes suggested that awide variation exists in switchgrass for salt tolerance; The observed variations in salt tolerance between differentswitchgrass varieties may be a valuable tool in further switchgrass breeding programs.