Male Gametophytic and Sporophytic Screening of Olive Cultivars for Salt Stress Tolerance

Pollen grains as well as whole plants of four olive (olea europaea l.) cultivars werescreened for nacl salinity stress. different vegetative and physiological indexes of thecultivars were analyzed. leaf and root na/k ratio as well as stomatal resistance of plantsexposed to salinity proved to be appropriate indexes of whole plant response to salt stress.whereas, in vitro pollen germination percentage served as a reliable index of pollentolerance to salinity, pollen tube growth did not. a close correlation between pollen(gametophyte) and whole plant (sporophyte) responses to salinity was observed. theseparallel responses imply that selection exerted at the gametophytic level could overcomebreeding problems encountered at sporophytic level when dealing with adult olive plants.