Exploring the Potential of Quinoa Accessions for Salt Tolerance in Soilless Culture

Pakistan has more than 6 million hectares of salt affected land and quinoa is tested as a facultative halophyte having super food characteristics. A hydroponic study was conducted to explore salt tolerance of two quinoa accessions, Ames-13737 (Q7) and PI-634919 (Q9) under a range of NaCl levels (0, 100, 200 and 300 mM) in wirehouse during 2016. Plant nursery was raised, and at four leaf stage, the seedlings were transferred to plastic tubs containing 20 L half strength Hoagland's solution as nutrient source. Salinity was developed incrementally to avoid osmotic shock after two days of transplanting. Results showed that growth (shoot length, root length and dry weight/plant) reduced drastically in Q9 by increasing the salinity level as compared to Q7. However, a comparable growth was observed in Q-7 at 0 and 100 mM i.e. the dry weight at 0 and 100 mM salinity were 0.8643 g and 0.8125 g, respectively. Furthermore, genotype Q7 was found better than Q9 by producing 10% more dry weight (0.2790 g) at the highest salinity level which was linked to 57% more leaf K+ accumulation (28.64 mg K+ g(-1) dry weight) as compared to Q9 (12.54 mg K+ g-1 dry weight). It is concluded that tolerance of Q7 to salt stress might be due to more absorption of K+ by the roots at increased Na+ level. (C) 2017 Friends Science Publishers