SALINITY IMPAIRS IONIC, PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL ATTRIBUTES IN POTATO

Salt stress is hampering plant growth and development especially in arid and semiarid regions due to enhanced evapotranspiration and underground brackish irrigation water. A pot experiment was therefore conducted to assess the malicious effects of salinity on two potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars namely N-Y LARA and 720-110 NARC. Various salinity levels (control, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 10.0 and 12.5 dS m(-1), developed with NaCl) were induced after 30 days of tuber emergence. Both the cultivars proved to be significantly (p <= 0.05) affected by salt stress. However, N-Y LARA was less affected than 720-110 NARC. Salinity stress drastically reduced potassium (K+) contents, protein contents, water relations and gas exchange attributes. However, sodium (Na+) contents, Na+: K+ ratio, leaf electrolyte leakage, proline contents, melondialdehyde (MDA) contents and antioxidant enzymes activities like superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) were increased with increasing salinity stress. Conclusively, salt tolerance potential is cultivar dependent as both cultivars exhibited diverse performance vis-a-vis various studied attributes against different NaCl levels.