EVALUATING SALT TOLERANCE OF TWENTY TRADITIONAL RICE VARIETIES FROM VIETNAM

Abstract

Due to the negative effects of climate change, sea water intrusion is causing difficulties for rice production in Vietnam. Presently, there are several Vietnam rice landraces being preserved at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) which have not been adequately characterized to utilize as breeding materials for developing rice cultivars to cope with salinity stress. In this study, total of 20 rice landraces were evaluated for salinity tolerance in NaCl 6‰ salinized solutions in three weeks. The results showed that there are 4 out of 20 accessions presenting high salinity tolerance in term of plant growth and physiological parameters. Although known salinity tolerance-related gene was not detected, there is the apparent difference of total protein profile of highly tolerant accessions between saline and control condition. The obtained results in this work could pave the way for following studies to breed new rice cultivars adapting to climate change in Vietnam.

Keywords: Rice landraces, salt tolerance, Saltol, IRRI, SDS-PAGE