Premium
Selection and Heritability of Tolerance to Sodium Chloride in Four Forage Species 1
Author(s) -
Ashraf M.,
McNeilly T.,
Bradshaw A. D.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci1987.0011183x002700020021x
Subject(s) - biology , trifolium alexandrinum , heritability , forage , interspecific competition , shoot , intraspecific competition , agronomy , seedling , medicago sativa , melilotus , red clover , selection (genetic algorithm) , brassica , botany , ecology , genetics , artificial intelligence , computer science
Breeding for salt tolerance in crop species, if possible, is an economical approach to overcoming the problem of soil salinity. However, the availability of appropriate genetic variation at the intraspecific and/or interspecific level is a prerequisite for successful progress under selection. Genetic variation for NaCl tolerance at the seedling stage was assessed in nutrient solution culture in forage rape ( Brassica napus L.), berseem clover ( Trifolium alexandrinum L.), alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.), and red clover ( Trifolium pratense L.). Shoot growth of all species was severely inhibited after 2 weeks of growth in 200, 225, and 250 mmol L −1 NaCl, but there was considerable variability between seedlings. Ten‐thousand seeds of each species were therefore screened for shoot growth at high NaCl concentrations. Selection intensities of < 1% were achieved for all species. Selected plants in two polycrossed populations of each species allowed estimation of realized heritability and narrow‐sense heritability. Realized heritabilities were 0.62, 0.34, 0.31, and 0.57 for forage rape, berseem clover, alfalfa, and red clover, while narrowsense heritabilities from parent‐progeny regression, were 0.74, 0.50, 0.52, and 0.98 for those species, respectively. It was concluded that significant responses to recurrent selection for seedling NaCl tolerance may be expected in these species.