Effect of salt stress on the germination of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

In order to understand the mechanisms involved in plant tolerance to salinity, experiments are carried out on ten genotypes of chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.), to compare their germination behavior at different concentrations of NaCl (0 mM, 68 mM and 170 mM), the measurements carried out have concerned the earliness, kinetics, the daily and final germination rate and the length of the radical. For this last parameter, the results were analyzed statistically to select the most tolerant varieties. Results suggest that the final rate of germination of most of the genotypes studied is not affected by salinity, whereas for the parameter length of the radical the effect of salinity is significant.