Screening of rice landraces for salinity tolerance at seedling stage through morphological and molecular markers.

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate 33 rice landrace genotypes for assessment of their salt tolerance at seedling stage. Growth parameters like root length, shoot length and plant biomass were measured after 12 days of exposure to six different levels of saline solution (with electrical conductivity of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 14 dS m (-1)). Genotypes showing significant interaction and differential response towards salinity were assessed at molecular level using 11 simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers, linked with salt tolerance quantitative trait loci. Shoot length, root length and plant biomass at seedling stage decreased with increasing salinity. However, relative salt tolerance in terms of these three parameters varied among genotypes. Out of the 11 SSR markers RM8094, RM336 and RM8046, the most competent descriptors to screen the salt tolerant genotypes with higher polymorphic information content coupled with higher marker index value, significantly distinguished the salt tolerant genotypes. Combining morphological and molecular assessment, four lanraces viz. Gheus, Ghunsi, Kuthiahara and Sholerpona were considered as true salt tolerant genotypes which may contribute in greater way in the development of salt tolerant genotypes in rice.