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- Author or Editor: Michael C. Shannon x
- HortScience x
The lack of improvement for salt tolerance has been attributed to insufficient genetic variation, a need for rapid and reliable genetic markers for screening, and the complexities of salinity × environment interactions. Salt tolerance is a quantitative character that has been defined in a multitude of ways subject to changes with plant development and differentiation; thus, assessing salt tolerance among genotypes that differ in growth or development rate is difficult. Salt tolerance also varies based upon concentrations of both major and minor nutrients in the root zone. Plant growth models may provide a method to integrate the complexities of plant responses to salinity stress with-the relevant environmental variables that interact with the measurement of tolerance. Mechanistic models have been developed over the last few years that are responsive to nitrogen or drought stress but not to salinity stress. Models responsive to salinity stress would provide insights for breeders and aid in the development of more practical research on the physiological mechanisms of plant salt tolerance.
A salt-tolerance selected F5 generation from a cross between the wild tomato species, Lycopersicon cheesmanii, ecotype LA 1401, and the cultivated species, L. esculentum Mill. (cv Heinz 1350) was compared to the wild parental line in a solution culture experiment to determine the effects of selection on salt tolerance, and ion discrimination and accumulation characteristics in the selected line. Seedlings were transplanted to nutrient solutions at the 3 to 4-leaf stage of growth and after a 1-week period of adjustment, were salinized at 25 mM NaCl day-1 (approximately -1 bar osmotic potential) to final salt concentrations of 0, 50, and 100 mM. Plasmalemma and tonoplast vesicles were isolated from fresh root samples, and ATPase and Na+/H+ antiport activity was determined using fluorescence assays. The selected line restricted Na uptake into the shoot and maintained higher shoot K+ than did the wild parent. Growth rate under salinity was greater in the selected line than in the wild species, but relative salt tolerance was higher in the wild parent. Interspecific hybridization appears to be a useful process for the transfer of salt tolerance characters from wild to cultivated tomato.