Phenotypic Differences and Physiological Responses of Salt Resistance of Walnut with Four Rootstock Types

Xinying Ji; Jiali Tang; Wei Fan; Baoxin Li; Yongchao Bai; Junxing He; Dong Pei; Junpei Zhang

doi:10.3390/plants11121557

Phenotypic Differences and Physiological Responses of Salt Resistance of Walnut with Four Rootstock Types

Plants (Basel). 2022 Jun 13;11(12):1557. doi: 10.3390/plants11121557.

Authors

Xinying Ji¹, Jiali Tang¹, Wei Fan², Baoxin Li¹, Yongchao Bai¹, Junxing He¹, Dong Pei¹, Junpei Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.

Abstract

Walnut is one of the world’s four largest nuts. Currently, the bottleneck in walnut breeding is the production of resistant variants. Soil salinization is a global problem, and the use of salt-tolerant rootstocks is a basic strategy to overcome the challenge of sustained walnut production. Providing a scientific basis for the selection of walnut salt-tolerant rootstocks is possible by studying the physiological and biochemical response characteristics and salt tolerance variations of different walnut genotypes under salt stress. In the present study, seedlings of four genotypes of walnut rootstocks, including J1 (Juglans hindsii), J2 (J. mandshurica), J3 (J. regia × J. mandshurica), and J4 (J. regia × J. hindsii), were employed as test materials to conduct a 28-day pot experiment under NaCl stress with five NaCl concentrations (0, 50, 100, 200, and 300 mmol/L). Under different NaCl treatment concentrations, seedling morphology, growth indices, chlorophyll content, photosynthetic parameters, relative electrical conductivity (REC), malondialdehyde (MDA), proline (Pro), soluble sugar (SS), and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) in the leaves were examined. Salt stress altered the morphological characteristics and growth indices of seedlings from four genotypes to varying degrees. In addition, according to the analysis of physiological and biochemical data, salt stress had a considerable impact on both the physiological and biochemical processes of seedlings. Salt stress decreased the chlorophyll content and photosynthetic parameters of four genotypes, the REC, MDA content, Pro content, and SS content of each genotype increased by different degrees, and the enzymatic activities showed different trends. The salt tolerance of rootstocks was evaluated thoroughly using principal component analysis and membership function analysis based on the 16 parameters. The results of a comprehensive evaluation of salt tolerance showed that the order of salt tolerance of the four genotypes was J4 > J1 > J3 > J2, which corresponded to the order of the morphological symptoms of salt injury. In conclusion, J4 has strong salt tolerance and is an important germplasm resource for walnut salt-tolerant rootstock breeding.

Keywords: growth characteristics; physiology and biochemistry; principal component analysis; salt stress; walnut rootstock.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Number: 2019YFD1001603).