Alleviation of Salt Induced Phytotoxicity on in Vitro Germination and Morphogenesis of Four Chickpea Genotypes through Benzyladenine

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the level of salt toxicity on four novel chickpea genotypes (BG 372, BG 1105, BG 2019 and BG 2024) under in vitro condition for percentage seed germination and morphogenesis. All the four genotypes were exposed to different concentrations (0, 1, 50, 100 and 150 mM) of NaCl in the Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with or without benzyl adenine (BA). Addition of different concentrations (0, 1, 5, 10 or 25 μM) of cytokinins; Zeatin, Kn or BA to the varied concentrations of NaCl, 1μM BA proved optimum for maximum amelioration on all growth parameters from the negative effects of salt stress. The alleviation was more pronounced in such genotypes which were severely affected (BG 2019 and BG 2024) under salt stress. Thus a positive correlation has been presented in the NaCl stress induced changes and BA interaction for the first time in chickpea genotypes. VEENA AGRAWAL Department of Botany, University of Delhi, Delhi110007, India