The screening of tolerant barley seedlings to osmotic stress

پژوهشهای زراعی ایران

Volume 7, Issue 2 - Serial Number 14, 2009   

Document Type: Research Article

Abstract

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a model plant for genetical and physiological studies and has a high adaptability to different conditions. At seedling stage drought stress prevents the suitable establishment of plant. It is possible to categorize the genotypes into resistant and sensitive genotypes using physiological and morphological traits. The objective of this study was to identify resistant and sensitive genotypes to osmotic stress among 9 Iranian and European genotypes. Poly ethylene glycol (PEG) was used for simulating the drought stress at chamber. Genotypes were cultured at control and stress conditions. The leaf wilting percentage was recorded 3, 6, 9 and 12 days after PEG application. RWC and some morphological traits were 7 and 14 days after PEG treatment, respectively. The results showed a highly significant difference between two growth conditions. The differences among genotypes were significant. Fro all traits except the area under wilting progress curve, the sensitive index was calculated. The results showed that Nutans and Erectum are the most sensitive and Dari_83_6 and L.527 are the most tolerant genotypes to osmotic stress at seedling stage. Although EC_79_10 can be considered as tolerant based on the seedling morphological traits but it showed a
significantly higher wilting than tolerant genotypes and so will be grouped as semi tolerant.

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