genotypic variation for salinity tolerance in sorghum (sorghum bicolor (l.) moench) genotypes at early growth stages

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is the fifth most economically important crop among cereals in the world. Salinity is an abiotic factor which reduces productivity of sorghum. Exploiting genetic variability to identify salt tolerant genotype is one of the strategies used to overcome salinity. Pot experiment was carried out to evaluate the genetic variation of eleven sorghum genotypes for NaCl salinity response at germination and early seedling stages. The experimental treatments were five NaCl salinity levels (0, 2, 4, 8, and 16 dS m-1) and eleven sorghum genotypes (Gambella1107, Melkam, S-35, ESH-2, Gobye, 97MW6130, Meko, 76T1#23, ICSV-111, Abshir and Teshale). The experimental design was completely randomized design with three replicates.Data was analyzed using SAS (version 9.0) statistical software and means were separated by LSD. Germination rate, final germination percentage, seedling shoot length and seedling root length were measured. The ANOVA for treatments, genotypes and their interaction was found to be highly significant (p<0.001) with regard to all parameters. Genotypes Meko, Gambella1107, ICSV-111 and Melkam were found salt tolerant during germination and seedling growth stages. However, genotypes ESH-2 and Gobye were salt sensitive during both stages. The rest sorghum genotypes were intermediate in their salt tolerance. The study affirmed the presence of wide genotypic variation among the sorghum genotypes for NaCl salt tolerance.