2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Salinity stress is becoming more acute problem as the cultivated land are becoming more saline by the residual salt left after underground water irrigation. We have previously developed genetic cross between a salt-sensitive cultivar of Solanum lycopersicum CA4-S and a salt-tolerant wild relative (WR) Solanum pimpinellifolium LA1606-T and characterized progenies of F1 hybrids for salt tolerance (Ezin et al., 2018, Agricultural Sciences 9, 1553). This characterization resulted in several F1 lines exhibiting higher salt tolerance or salt sensitivity compared to parental lines. The objective of present investigation was to determine potential of developing salt tolerant tomato genotypes by evaluating response of selected putative salt tolerant and sensitive F2 progenies to salt treatment. One-month-old seedlings from several putative tolerant and sensitive F2 progenies were cultivated in the presence of continuous 185 mM NaCl and their salinity tolerance was evaluated by quantifying several growth and development parameters. These parameters include plant height, SPAD values as indicator of chlorophyll levels, days to flowering, fruit set and ripening. The plant height was significantly retarded (over 50 %) for the salt sensitive F2 progenies whereas the salt tolerant F2 progenies exhibited only 20 % reduction. We are presently quantifying changes in fruit lycopene levels. We are also conducting transcriptome analyses to determine the effect of salt treatment on differential gene expression in fruit to delineate the role of saline conditions on fruit quality.