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Research and Reviews : A Journal of Life Sciences

Evaluation of Salinity on the Growth Performance and Cytological Characteristics of Some Selected Sorghum Cultivars (Zabuwa, Deco and Farfara)

  1. Sa’id Abba Idris
  2. Hussaini Baba Idris
  3. Abdullahi Yusuf

Abstract

This research work was carried out to determine evaluate the effect of Salinity on the Growth Performance and Cytological Characteristics of Some Selected Sorghum Cultivars viz., SAMSORG 46 (Zabuwa), SAMSORG 45 (Deco) and Farfara. A nursery experiment was carried out at Federal University Dutse (FUD) in the Botanical Garden of the Department of Biological Sciences. There were three replicates in the fully randomized block design experiment. Treatment employed consist of different concentrations of NaCl, with electric conductivity (EC) of 1.0 dsm-1, 2.0 dsm-1, 3.0 dsm-1, 4.0 dsm-1, and 5.0 dsm-1, in addition to 0.0 dsm-1, which served as control. The study evaluated the following growth parameters: plant height, number of branches, fresh weight, and dry weight. The cytological examination was carried out on the treated tissues (the hypocotyl) using the wet mount technique preparation method. The data collected were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result revealed that salinity different concentrations growth parameters by suppressing growth and development at times. Poor growth was showed in Deco cultivars in both plant height, number of leaves, fresh and dry weight, by the time salinity exceeds 5dsm-1 might perish. Thus, there was no significant interactions in most of the characters studied. Cellular examinations showed that high salinity distorted the cell organelles, by shrinking the nucleus, vacuole becoming enlarged, cell walls becoming thicker. The optimum salts concentration tolerated by the varieties was generally in the range of control (0 dsm-1)to 2.0 dsm-1 salt concentration, as the growth, physiological and cytological characters were significantly reduced. The Study concludes that high concentrations of salt has effect on the plant growth, though the effect and the different variety differs, as such screening exercise in respect of salinity tolerance of other cultivars and for optimum vegetative growth and yield.

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