ICRISAT Archival Report 2006 - The seedlings of success in the ...

which a robust set of tolerant/sensitive genotypes will be identified for further testing. Crosses are also being
made to develop segregating populations.
V Vadez, HD Upadhyaya, SN Nigam and RK Varshney
Pigeonpea screening: Data from the 2005 experiment were processed and analyzed. Here, we have assessed the
morphological and physiological variation in pigeonpea for salinity tolerance in 300 genotypes, including the
mini core collection of ICRISAT, wild accessions and land races from putatively saline prone areas worldwide.
There was a large variation in the salinity susceptibility index (SSI) and the percent relative reduction (RR %) in
both cultivated and wild accessions. The amount of Na + accumulation in shoot showed that more tolerant
cultivated materials accumulated less Na in shoot (Fig 6). Such relation was not true for wild species. Wild
species C. acutifolius, C. cajanifolius and C. lineatus were mostly sensitive, whereas C. platycarpus, C.
scarabaeoides and C. sericeus provided good sources of tolerance. It was interesting to notice that C.
scarabaeoides also provided a large range of sensitive materials. The minicore collection of pigeonpea provided
a large range of variation for salinity tolerance. Among the tolerant genotypes, there were a large number of
tolerant accessions originating from Bangladesh. A repeat of the pigeonpea screening done in 2005 was
performed. Unfortunately, the trial failed because of soil quality used for that experiment (we noticed too late
the poor fertility of the soil lot that was allotted to us and saline treated plant failed to make it to harvest).
(a)
Ratio biomass
0.6
y = -0.1219x + 0.3691
0.5
(r=0.78,P>0.001)
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50
Na accumulation
(b)
Ratio biomass
1.2 0
1.0 0
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
y = -0 .0 703 x + 0 .542 1
(r=0.36,P0.01)
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00
Na accumulation
(d)
Ratio biomass
0.80
0.70
y = -0.0839x + 0.4573
0.60
(r=0.61,P>0.01)
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00
Na accumulation
Fig 6. Simple linear correlation between the ratio of biomass (biomass under salinity divided by biomass
under control) and Na + accumulation in shoot: (a) with a treatment of 1.34 g NaCl kg -1 soil in six
genotypes of different maturity group, (b) in wild species (c) in selected landraces from saline areas (d) in
the minicore collection. Data are the mean of 5, 3, 3, and 3 replicated data of each genotype, for (a), (b),
(c) and (d) respectively.
V Vadez, HD Upadhyaya, KB Saxena, CLL Gowda and RK Varshney
Milestone C.5.2.2: Chickpea mini core salinity evaluation data analyzed (VV/LK/HDU, 2008)
Salinity is an ever-increasing problem in agriculture worldwide, especially in South Asia (India, Pakistan) and
Australia. A screening of 263 accessions of chickpea, including 211 accessions from ICRISAT’s mini-core
collection (10% of the core collection and 1% of the entire collection), was performed and showed, overall, that
the large variation in salinity tolerance in chickpea was explained by differences in sensitivity at reproductive
stages. Data showed a six-fold range of variation for seed yield under salinity, with several genotypes yielding
20% more than a previously released salinity tolerant cultivar. The range of variation in yields under salinity
was similar in both kabuli and desi chickpeas, indicating that breeding for salinity tolerance can be undertaken
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