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SCREENING OF LOCAL ACCESSIONS OF PANICUM MALIACEUM L. FOR SALT TOLERANCE AT THE SEEDLING STAGE USING BIOMASS PRODUCTION AND ION ACCUMULATION AS SELECTION CRITERIA

PAKEEZA SABIR AND ^*MUHAMMAD ASHRAF

Abstract: In order to assess inter-cultivar variation for salt tolerance in Panicum maliaceum L., 18 local accessions were screened at the seedling stage by growing them at 0 and 150 mM NaCl in sand culture. A great magnitude of variation for salt tolerance was observed in this set of germplasm. Accessions 008211, 008214, 008220 and 008226 were found to be salt tolerant on the basis of their growth performance at the seedling stage. These tolerant lines accumulated lower amount of Na⁺ and maintained higher K^+/Na⁺ in their shoots as compared to the sensitive lines. Although a great magnitude of variation for salt tolerance was observed while screening the 18 accessions at the seedling stage, it is not certain whether such variation is detectable at the later growth stages. This needs to be further investigated.

Department of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.