Screening of Solanum tuberosum Cultivars Salt Tolerences In vitro Condition

Aims: To evaluate the impacts of salinity on some physiological traits of potato cultivars under in Vitro conditions.

Study Design: Completely Randomized Design using two factors.

Place and Duration of Study: The Genetics and Plant Breeding Department, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University from October 2019 to January 2021.

Methodology: Ten varieties; eight were collected from Tuber Crops Research Centre (TCRC), Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur, and two from Sylhet were used. The varieties were BARI 29 (V1), Pechar Chokh (V2), BARI 72 (V3), Lal Shila (V4), BARI 53 (V5), BARI 25 (V6), BARI 28 (V7) and BARI 36 (V8), BARI 7 (V9) and BARI 73 (V10). Four salinity treatments including T1 (control), T2 (5 dS/m), T3 (10 dS/m), and T4 (15 dS/m) were applied to the varieties.

Results: Varieties and salinity treatment were influenced individually in the interaction with the physiological traits of potatoes.V8 showed higher chlorophyll content (63.892%) while a minimum of 27.5% was recorded in V5. The chlorophyll content of potato varieties was increased at the lower level of salinity (T0). The accumulation of proline was observed in all varieties and treatments; however, the V7 cultivar (14.02 µmol-1FW) and T4 salinity treatment had higher accumulation. In response to salinity, the content of Na+ of potato plants rose at 0.26% in T4 while the decreasing trend was found in K+ due to salinity stress. Moreover, the highest Na+ content (0.20%) was found in V7 whereas the highest value of K+ content (0.20 %) was reported in the V4 variety.

Conclusion: From the experiment, it has been found that BARI Alu-72(V3) performed well under 5 dS/m salinity level and 10 dS/m level because better yields were obtained from these varieties. So V3 variety is recommended for mild to moderate saline-prone areas in Bangladesh.