Salinity stress to lerance of camelina investigated in vitro

The ability of Camelina sativa to withstand salinity stress in vitro by adding NaCl (0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200mM) in Murashige and Skoog basal medium was studied. Performance of the plants was measured in terms of various growth parameters and physiological and biochemical tests performed on fully grown plants. The germination capacity, cotyledon unfolding and first true leaf emergence was reduced by 30.6, 17.3, and 28.8%, respectively in 200mM salt treatment with respect to control. The plant height, relative water content, and plant water content were decreased by 85.4, 10.8, and 9.8%, respectively, in stressed plants with respect to control. A decrease in chlorophyll a and b and total chlorophyll contents (by 81.3%),as well as of protein content was registered. Electrical conductivity increased by 52.8% in stressed plants over control, as expected.Other stress indicators like guiacol peroxidase activity and malondialdehyde also increased with respect to control. At salt concentrations lower than 200mM, no clear cut retardation effects were seen. Thus, the present study opens up the scope of further assessment of survivability of camelina in salt contaminated soils.