Improvement of Salt Stress Tolerance in Strawberry by Ethyl Methane Sulfonate Treatment

Abd EL- Moneim, Eman A. M.; Nassar, M. A.; El-Said, Rania A. R.; EL-Refaee, Y. Z.

doi:10.21608/jacb.2021.186727

Improvement of Salt Stress Tolerance in Strawberry by Ethyl Methane Sulfonate Treatment

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Biological and Ecological Dept., Faculty of Home Economic, Al-Azhar University at Tanta, Egypt

² Agriculture Botany Dept. (Genetics), Faculty of Agricultural, Al-Azhar University, Egypt

³ Rice Research Department, Field Crops Research Institute, Agriculture Research Centre, Egypt.

10.21608/jacb.2021.186727

Abstract

In Egypt, strawberry is one of the most important export vegetable crops and in addition,traded locally wide.Strawberry crop is sensitive to salinity of soil and irrigation water, as an increase in salinity over 700ppm has a negative effect on vegetative growth and yield. This study was conducted to obtain genetic variation and assess their tolerance to salt stress by ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS). EMS with three concentrations (0.0, 0.1 and 0.3 %)for (30, 60 and 90 min) applied to “Fortuna cv.” runner tips. Strawberry seedlings were planted in the open field to assess vegetative growth and yield traits. Strains were evaluated under saline stress conditions (500 and 1000 ppm of Na Cl) after selecting the best.RAPD- PCR technique was used to detect the potentiality variability effects of EMS.The results showed that soaking in EMS treatment improved the vegetative growth and yield characteristics under salt stress conditions compared with the control such as plant height,number of leaves, chlorophyll content, number of fruits/plot and weight of fruits/plot. The results showed also high values for fruit quality parameters such as.,fats (%), proteins (%), ash (%), humidity (%),carbohydrates (%)and fibers (%)with EMS treatment compared to control plants. Using four RAPD primers, a total number of 15polymorphic bands were detected, out of 12 bands were resulted after EMS treatment. Eleven unique bands were observed, which eight from EMS treatment plants and other three bands amang the contral plants.This study revealed that EMS,as a chemical mutagen is considered is promising in chemical enhancing salt tolerance.

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