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Crop and Pasture Science Crop and Pasture Science Society
Plant sciences, sustainable farming systems and food quality
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Salinity, alkalinity and their combined stress effects on germination and seedling growth attributes in oats (Avena sativa)

Shahid Ahmed A , Richa Patel A , Rajesh Kumar Singhal https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2685-6299 A * , Neeraj Kumar A B , Maneet Rana A , Indu I A , Subhash Chand A and Amaresh Chandra A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A ICAR-Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi, U.P. 28403, India.

B ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012, India.

* Correspondence to: rajasinghal151@gmail.com

Handling Editor: Zed Rengel

Crop & Pasture Science - https://doi.org/10.1071/CP22322
Submitted: 29 August 2022  Accepted: 18 August 2023   Published online: 8 September 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

Context

Under natural field conditions, plants confront the co-occurrence of stresses. A comprehensive insight into combined-stress tolerance is requisite to developing stress resilience in cultivars of oats (Avena sativa L.) for saline–alkaline soil.

Aims

This study was undertaken to characterise diverse oat genotypes for seedling growth attributes under two saline and alkaline concentrations and under combined saline–alkaline conditions.

Methods

We screened 105 accessions of the genus Avena with the following treatments: control, reverse osmosis water; moderate salinity (50 mM); high salinity (100 mM); moderate alkalinity (15 mM); high alkalinity (30 mM); combined moderate salinity–alkalinity (50 mM + 15 mM); and combined high salinity–alkalinity (100 mM + 30 mM). For saline treatments, NaCl and Na2SO4 salts were used in equimolar concentrations, and for alkaline treatments, NaHCO3 and Na2CO3.

Key results

Analysis of variance showed significant (P ≤ 0.001) variation among treatments and genotypes. Principal component analysis revealed 83.3% of the total genetic variation accounted for in the first two principal components. Correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation between final germination percentage and seedling vigour index. Stress tolerance index identified tolerant and sensitive oat genotypes under high saline and alkaline stress, and multi-trait stability analysis confirmed the stability of performance of some genotypes under the imposed treatments.

Conclusions

According to the stress tolerance index and multi-trait stability analysis, genotypes IG-20-477, OS-377, IG-20-798 and IG-20-575 were found suitable for high saline–alkaline stress.

Implications

The identified tolerant oat genotypes can be used as donors for the development of stress-resilient oat cultivars, and for generating mapping populations in oat.

Keywords: combined stress, multi-trait stability, oat genotypes, seed germination, seedling growth, seedling vigour, stress tolerance index.

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