Salinity problems seriously affect agricultural production by reducing crop yield and arable land. The evaluation of potato genotypes (Solanum spp.) for their salinity (NaCl) tolerance in conventional field trials is time consuming and labour intensive. The results are often confounded by many field and environmental variations. In vitro bioassays can overcome some of these difficulties by providing faster, more convenient and dependable methods for screening and selection of salt tolerant potato genotypes. The objective of this research was to develop in vitro bioassay methods for screening and selection of salt tolerant potato. Under in vitro NaCl stress conditions, seed germination, early seedling growth, and single-node cutting bioassays were used to evaluate salinity tolerance. The selected genotypes were further tested with three in vitro bioassays (single-node cuttings, root tip segments, and microtuberization). The rankings of potato cultivar salinity tolerance were similar in these bioassays. The single-node cutting bioassay was recommended because it was simpler to perform than the root tip segment and microtuberization bioassays and did not exclude certain genotypes as did the microtuberization bioassay. The in vitro bioassay rankings were compared with yield ranking in field lysimeters. In both the in vitro and in vivo saline stress experiments, cvs. Kennebec and Russet Burbank were more salt tolerant than Norland. The tubers and microtubers harvested from previous experiments were tested in the greenhouse to investigate salinity carry-over effect for seed tuber production. There was no apparent residual carry-over effect found. Microtuber yield increase in the presence of low NaCl concentration was induced primarily by specific ion (Na+), and not osmotic effects. This research clearly indicated that in vitro bioassays are relatively simple, rapid, convenient, repeatable, and agree with the field lysimeter results. They can be used to substitute for f
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.35659 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Zhang, Yanling, 1955- |
| Contributors | Donnelly, D. J. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Plant Science.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001610092, proquestno: NQ44645, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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