Screening Some Low land Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter! Accessions and Varieties for Salt Stress During Germination and Growth
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Date
2005-07
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
Fifteen low land tef genotypes ( 10 accessions and 5 varieties) were tested during germination
and later growth stages at OdS /m ( control ), 2dS/m, 4dS/m, 8dS/m, 12dS/m and 16dS /m and data
analysis iras carried out using SAS package ( SAS version 8.2, 2001 ). During germination and
during later growth stages 3 and 14 characters were measured respectively and data analysis
showed significant variation among most parameters recorded during each growth stage for
accessions and varieties ( P<0.01 ) as well as for treatments ( P <0.001 ). Germination rate and
seedling root length were more salt affected than final germination percentage and seedling
shoot length respectively. The main cause for reduced and delayed germination percentage was
osmotic effect even if specific ion effect played a minor role. During growth experiment; plant
height during heading ( PHDH ), flag leaf length ( FLL ), days to maturity ( DTM ), root dry weight
( RDW ), main panicle dry weight ( MPDW ) and gain yield per main panicle ( GY/MP ) were more
salt affected than other plant characters, especially the last two. Unlike the case in germination,
most accessions and varieties failed to germinate and grow on 12dS/m and 16dS/m salinity
levels. It demonstrates that tef is more salt sensitive during late growth stage than during
germination. Varieties such as DZ -01-1281, DZ -Cr-358 and accession 236512 during
germination, and accessions 55017, 23651,212611, varieties DZ -01 - 1281, DZ-Cr-358, and
accession 231217 during later growth stages were salt sensitive respectively. On the other hand,
accessions like 237186, 237131, 212928, and variety DZ-Cr -37 during germination and
accession 237186 , variety DZ-Cr-37 and accession 237131 during later growth stages were salt
tolerant orderly. Accessions 237186, 237131 and variety DZ -Cr-37 were able to reconfirm their
germination tolerance during later growth and development ; nevertheless, 212928 was not able
to do so. Thus in tef, salt tolerance at germination may or may not reappear in later growth
stages. Unlike all accessions and varieties, accession 237186 was found to be salt tolerant at the
whole plant level except its grain yield per main panicle was not promising . So this genotype has
both short -term and long -term agricultural significance. Generally, the study revealed the
presence of broad intraspecific genetic variation in tef accessions and varieties for salt tolerance
but more in the former. Irrespective of salinity being a growing problem in Ethiopia in general
and the Awash valley in particular, only little has been done on crops salt tolerance. Therefore ,
to alleviate the already existing and the inevitable incoming salinity problem, there should be
similar and pro found studies on tef and other crops
Key Words/ accessions, germination , growth, NaCl , salinity, Eragrostis tef, varieties
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Keywords
Accessions, Germination, Growth NaCl, Salinity, Eragrostis tef, Varieties