Evaluation for Salt Tolerance in Rice Using Multiple Screening Methods

Screening methods that are effective in the early stage of growth will potentially provide the largest quantity of breeding material. Although various screening methods under greenhouse have been proposed, potential effective approaches must be described a good correlation with results under field conditions. This study was aimed to assess the correlations between traits obtained from four salt screening methods, hydroponic culture, soil culture, pot and field methods. Salt injury scores from the soil culture and hydroponic methods at the seedling stage under salinity of 12 dS m-1, were not correlated, but were able to identify the variety Pokkali as being a tolerant variety, and IR29 as a susceptible variety. Traits in the pot and field experiments were significantly related to the rice varieties and salt salinity levels. The correlations at the seedling stage were found between salt injury score in the soil culture and plant height, proline content of leaves and panicle length in the field experiment (r= -0.886, r= 0.992 and r= -0.933, respectively). Also, traits from the pot experiment showed significant correlations with those from the field experiment. Salt injury scores obtained from soil culture method provide a simple and efficient method for indirect selection for salt tolerance in rice.