Impact of salinity on physiological and biochemical traits in pearl millet

Abstract

Salinity is one of the most severe environmental factors limiting the productivity of agricultural crops in arid and semi-arid reg ions. Accumulation of excess salts in the rhizospheric environment results in disturbed metabolic processes which commonly manifested in nutrient imbalance, reduced nutrient uptake including K+, specific ion toxicity, distinctly changed concentrations of key biomolecules, inhibited plant growth to osmotic stress and ultimately poor productivity. Salinity management through improved irrigation techniques is viable option but quite expensive one. Therefore, crop improvement could be less expensive and a more sustainable solution for agricultural use of salt affected soils (Krishnamurthy el 01.. 2007). Pearl millet (Pel1niselum glaucum) is a warm season coarse grain cereal generally considered as fairly tolerant to salinity. Salt tolerance has been identified as a developmentally regulated. stage-specific phenomenon. Variation in whole-plant reaction to salinity provides the most efficient in itial screening for salinity tolerance. The present investigation was carried out to explore the genotypic variability in pearl millet and to identify the key physiological and biochemical traits influencing crop growth and development during the stress periods.