부산대학교 도서관

Soil salinity is a menace that is affecting the agricultural soils and turning these soils into low productive ones and interfere the normal crop development. Wheat is an important cereal crop and salinity is also affecting the growth and yield of this crop. While salicylic acid is found to play a helpful role in supporting the plant growth and development under salt stress. Keeping in view these factors a hydroponic experiment was conducted on wheat with two levels of salicylic acid (0.25 mM and 0.50 mM) under two salt levels (75 mM and 150 mM) to assess that whether the salicylic acid is helpful in coping the harmful effects of salinity on crop growth or not and if it has certain positive response then which level is more suitable for wheat crop growth along with the genotypic assessment of salt tolerance in wheat cultivars (Faisalabad-2008 and Punjab-2011). Punjab-2011 performed better under normal and saline conditions than Faisalabad-2008. Shoot length reduction was 13.15 and 27.50% for Faisalabad-2008 and Punjab-2011 respectively under 75 mM salt stress but response at higher level 150 mM was different with 34.21 and 25.0% reduction in shoot length for Faisalabad-2008 and Punjab-2011 respectively. A significant improvement in shoot length was observed with the application of salicylic acid. Same trend was found for root length. Salt stress lowered the chlorophyll contents, number of tillers and K+/Na+ ratio in both genotypes but the application of salicylic acid improve all the mentioned parameters significantly. The treatment effect of 0.25 mM salicylic acid was more effective under both levels of salt stress as compared to 50 mM salicylic acid treatment. Genotypic differences were non-significant but cumulatively Punjab-2011 showed better performance as compared to Faisalabad-2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]