International Science Community Association Research Journal of Recent Sciences 2277 - 2502 1 3 2012 March 2 Salt Tolerance of Sorghum bicolor Cultivars during Germination and Seedling Growth 1 10 EN Chauhan RekhaRani 1 Department of Botany, KGK PG College, Moradabad-244001, UP, INDIA Chaudhary Reema 2 Plant Physiology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Hindu College Moradabad-244001, UP, INDIA Singh Alka 3 Singh P.K. 4 > Research Paper 2012 1 19 2012 March 2 Sorghum is rated as moderately salt tolerant and can produce profitable crops on saline soils. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of salinity on the germination and emergence of sorghum cultivars, and to investigate the potential for genetic salt tolerance during the germination and early vegetative growth. Seeds of 13 sorghum cultivars were germinated using U.S.S. lab staff saline solution at 5 different salt concentrations for 10 days. Germination percentage, root and shoot length, seedling dry weight, root/shoot dry weight ratio, and total dry weight salt susceptibility index were investigated in this study. The germination results revealed that the increasing salt concentrations decreased germination and seedling growth in all the cultivars. The extent of decrease varied with cultivars and salt concentrations. All cultivars germinated in all salinities but at 10 and 12 EC level of salinity, the highest and lowest germination percentage was obtained for CSV-15 and PANT-1cultivars respectively. It is found that salt stress significantly decreased root length, shoot length, and seedling dry weight of sorghum cultivars. In the presence of high salt concentration (10 and 12 EC), CSV-15 and HC-171 cultivars showed the greatest shoot length, root length, and total dry weight. At the first development stage, the shoot growth of sorghum cultivar was more adversely affected compared to the root growth by salt stress. Statistical analysis showed substantial intra-specific variation in salinity tolerance. On the basis of germination percentage, total dry weight reduction, root and shoot length reduction, and salt susceptibility indices at 7.2, 10, and 12 EC levels of salinity only three sorghum cultivars (CSV-15, HD-19, and HC-171) out of thirteen were classified as salt tolerant. On the other hand sensitivity against salinity was observed in PANT-1, PANT-2, HC-308, HC-513, and HC-260 and so, these are grouped under salt sensitive group. Based on the results of the experiment, CSV-15, HD-19 and HC-171 can be useful as genetic resources for the development of sorghum cultivars with improved germination under salt stress. Copyright@ International Science Community Association