An Investigation into the Salinity Tolerance of F2 Filial Plants Obtained from Three Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivar Crosses in Germination Stage

Salinity is one of the environmental stresses limiting rice cultivation. Evaluation of the tolerance and sensitivity of offsprings of segregated generations under salinity condition is one way of finding tolerant cultivars. In order to study the effects of salinity (80 mM NaCl) stress on the second generation offspring of crosses of three rice varieties (Dollars and Gharib with 304) and to compare them with their parents and their classification in terms of salinity stress, the first experiment was conducted, adopting a Completely Randomized Design with four replications (i.e., crossing parents with Yasouj and Kamfirooz varieties). In the second experiment, check cultivars and the second generation progeny were evaluated, using an augment with a completely randomized design. At the germination stage, the Dollar cultivar was sensitive to salinity stress because it had the lowest ratio of all traits except germination percentage. However, Gharib and Kamfirooz Cultivars were salt tolerant. In both crosses, second-generation offsprings showed genetic variations in terms of the traits measured. Broad-sense heritability values for Dollars×304 and Gharib×304 crosses for shoot height (5.98% and 96%), root length (8.90% and 86%) and shoot fresh weight (8.95% and 7.92%), were relatively high, indicating that we can select these traits based on their phenotypes. General irritability for the shoot and root length traits in the second generation offsprings of Dollar and 304 crosses was higher than that of the second generation progeny of 304 and Gharib crosses. Based on these results, we concluded that for the purpose of improving salt tolerance at germination stage, 304 and Dollars crosses are more useful in rice breeding programs.