Evaluation of salinity tolerance of kabuli-type chickpea genotypes (Cicer arietinum L.) at seedling stage in hydroponic condition

Identification of salinity tolerant chickpea genotypes, in order to increase soil fertility in saline conditions, can be effective on crop yield stability. This experiment was conducted in hydroponic conditions as a completely randomized design with three replications to evaluate salinity tolerance of 210 Kabuli-type chickpea genotypes during seedling stage at salinity level of 12 dS m-1 NaCl. Results indicated that 57 genotypes showed survival rate of 76-100%, of which 26 genotypes were in post-flowering stage. Plant height and number of lateral branches per plant decreased as survival rate decreased. Percentage of remained leaves was not affected in the survival range of 100-51%, while it decreased in lower survivals (<50%) range. Decreases in membrane stability index were about 8, 19 and 26% in survival ranges of 51-75, 26-50 and 0-25%, respectively compared to survival range of 76-100%. Significant increase in shoot Na+ concentration was only found in survival range of 0-25%. 30, 60 percentage and 1.20 fold increase in K+ concentration and 0.47, 1.12 and 2.78 fold increases in biomass was found in survival ranges of 26-50, 51-75 and 76-100% as compared to survival of 0-25%. Generally, considerable variations were found among chickpea genotypes according to salinity tolerance which could be used in breeding programs of improving salt tolerance in chickpea.