effect of salt stress on seed germination, seedling growth and callus culture of rapeseed (brassica napus l.)

in this study, responses of four canola genotypes to salt stress in germination test and callus culture stages were investigated. the response of genotypes under salinity levels was significantly different. higher salinity resulted in less germination and growth of seedling. after callus culturing on liquid saline media, callus fresh weight and callus induction efficiency were significantly different among genotypes. increasing salt concentration in culture media didn’t have any effect on callus induction and growth, but high accumulation of na and low k accumulation was detected in calli. also k/na ratio decreased with salinity increasing. no correlation between germination and callus growth traits was detected. but the correlation of seed germination percentage with k and k/na accumulation in treated calli was positive. this correlation was negative with na accumulation. results of this research proposed that callus growth analysis on saline media could not be considered as a valuable criterion for evaluation of different genotypes of canola for salinity tolerance.