MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF Lagenaria siceraria L. CULTIVARS UNDER NaCl STRESS
MUJAHID ALI *
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, 40100, Pakistan. and Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan .
ABDUL KHALIQ
Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan
CHAUDHARY MUHAMMAD AYYUB
Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan
SHAHID IQBAL
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, 40100, Pakistan
MUHAMMAD IRFAN ASHRAF
Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan
MUHAMMAD AZAM
Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan
HAFIZ MUHAMMAD TAYYAB KHAN
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, 40100, Pakistan
MUHAMMAD ALI
Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan-60800, Pakistan
KARIM YAR ABBASI
Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38000, Pakistan
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Salinity is a major challenge for food security globally. The study was conducted in order to identify morphological and physiological attributes which can be used for characterization of salinity tolerance in bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria L.). Three genotypes (Round (Local), Latto (Local) and Louki) were sown in plastic pots, using fine sand as growth medium. After one month, saline water treatments (25, 50, 75 and 100 mM NaCl) were applied except control seedlings and Hoagland solution was used as nutrient solution. Data were collected and analyzed statistically using standard statistical procedures. The results showed that salinity has adverse effect with mostly morphological characters (number of leaves, root length, shoot length, root fresh mass, root dry mass, shoot fresh mass and shoot dry mass). Similarly, physiological characters as chlorophyll contents, photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate and stomatal conductance were also affected. Study revealed that Latto (local) cultivar showed significantly better tolerance to salinity as compared to others with maximum chlorophyll content (17.36 SPAD) under salinity conditions, followed by Louki (14.19 SPAD), while the Round (Local) variety revealed minimum value for chlorophyll (11.95) under salinity conditions.
Keywords: Bottle gourd, salt stress, sodicity, physiology, Na toxicity.