TITLE:
Genetic Variation in Salt Stress Response and Germplasm Resource Evaluation among Lycium Accessions
AUTHORS:
Panpan Xu, Yue Yin, Yuejin Zhang, Wei An, Zixin Mu
KEYWORDS:
Lycium, Germplasm Screening, Salt Stress, Ionic Homeostasis, Genetic Diversity
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.11 No.11,
November
30,
2020
ABSTRACT: Genetic variation between naturally occurring ecotypes can be helpful to elucidate
the mechanism controlling salt stress response in different environments. The
salt stress response of 20 natural accessions or cultivars of Lycium was characterized at a physiological
level, following exposed to 300 mM NaCl for 15 days. It is shown that salt stress
increased Na+, betaine and malondialdehyde (MDA) content, as well as
the relative permeability of plasma membranes, but decreased K+, chlorophyll
and glutathione (GSH) content, as well as K+/Na+ ratio
compared with their respective control value in most of the varieties, though
the increasing or decreasing extent has a clear genetic diversity. The
physiological response was utilized to evaluate the salt-tolerant capacity of
these varieties by principal component analysis and clustering analysis, and in
which total chlorophyll, K+/Na+ ratio and partially GSH have
the maximum weight relatively. These varieties could be categorized into four
sub-groups, means greatly resistance (Heiguo, Ninqi No. 2 and Beifang),
moderately resistant, sensitive, and mostly sensitive (Ninqi No. 7) to salt
stress. Our results provide a theoretical basis and practical guidance for the improvement of saline-alkali land and rational
utilization of Lycium germplasm resources in the future.