salinity tolerance evaluation of twelve selected pomegranate (punica granatum) genotypes to achieve tolerant cultivars and rootstocks

Purpose: pomegranate (punica granatum l.) is a very interesting fruittree for arid and semiarid areas in any part of the world. like other fruittrees, the selection of tolerant rootstocks and scion is a very goodstrategy to reduce the adverse effects of salinity on pomegranate.therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of salinity stress on thegrowth characteristics of some selected pomegranate genotypes andintroduce the most tolerant genotype(s) to salinity for use as a basis infuture research. research method: selected pomegranate genotypeswere evaluated using a factorial experiment based on a completelyrandomized design (crd) with four replications in 2019-2020. treatmentswere included 12 genotypes of golanr-e-shahdad (g-shahdad), golanr-e-sarvestan(g-sarvestan), golnar-saveh(g-saveh), poostsiah-e-ardekan(poostsiah), ‘malas-e-yazdi’(‘m-yazdi’), ‘malas-e-saveh’(‘msaveh’),‘shishecap-e-ferdos’ (‘shishecap’), ‘rabab-e-neiriz’ (‘rabab’),‘vahshi-e-babolsar’(‘v-babolsar’), ‘narak-e-lasjerd-semnan’(‘narak’),chahafzal and ‘voshik-e-torsh-e-saravan’(‘voshik’) and the salinity of theirrigation water in five levels (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 ds.m-1). findings: accordingto the results, the type of genotype and the level of salinity were affectedon morphological and physiological traits as well as the concentration ofnutrient elements. in all genotypes, the growth indices, relative watercontent (rwc), chlorophyll index, and total chlorophyll reduced as aresult of increasing the salinity level. but the percentage of necroticleaves, percentage of fallen leaves, ion leakage, concentration of na+, theconcentration of cl- and na+/k+ ratio increased. at salinity level of 7ds.m-1, necrotic leaves (3.11% &23.98%), fallen leaves (1.05% & 5.70%), ionleakage (5.87% & 22.10%), na+(0.31% & 1.29%), concentration of cl-(0.13%& 1.10%), concentration of k+(0.64% & -0.07%) and na+/k+ ratio(0.09 & 2.28 units) increased in chahafzal and voshik genotypes,respectively. research limitations: no limitations to report.originality/value: ‘chahafzal’ and ‘poostsiah’ genotypes were recognizedas the most tolerant to salinity according to the results. in contrast,voshik and m-saveh genotypes were more sensitive to salinity. thetolerant genotypes will be used in plans as rootstocks to graft theselected genotypes on them.