Background: Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill], popularly known as the &ldquo;Golden bean,&rdquo; is a major oilseed crop valued for its high protein and oil content. Soil salinity is a critical abiotic stress that adversely affects germination, growth and productivity in soybean. Identifying salinity-tolerant genotypes remains a key challenge for breeders and seed technologists. Therefore, standardized and reliable screening protocols are essential for the rapid identification of salinity-tolerant genotypes. 
 
Methods: The study was conducted at ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, during the kharif season of 2022 and 2023. A total of 156 soybean genotypes were evaluated, including 150 germplasm accessions (42 black-seeded, 105 yellow-seeded and 3 brown-seeded) with one-year-old stored seeds and six freshly harvested yellow-seeded varieties. Two techniques, namely the top-of-paper method and the between-paper method, were assessed. The top-of-paper method, with application of 2.5 ml NaCl solution on alternate days, was selected as a standard method. Salinity stress was imposed using four NaCl concentrations (0, 3, 6 and 9 dS/m) and seed quality traits [germination, seedling length, fresh and dry weight, Seedling Vigour Indices (SVI-I, SVI-II)] were integrated with the Salt Tolerance Index (STI) for genotypic categorisation. 
 
Result: Significant genotypic variation was observed for seed germination and seed quality under salinity stress. Black-seeded accessions and freshly harvested varieties showed higher germination and vigour than yellow-seeded accessions, which were poor storers. STI correlated positively with vigour indices at 6 dS/m in black accessions and released varieties and at 3 dS/m in yellow accessions. Brown-seeded accessions showed inconsistent responses. Based on STI and correlation, 20 genotypes were categorised as highly tolerant, moderately tolerant, or susceptible. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) identified seedling length and dry weight as key contributors to variation, while MGIDI analysis improved the efficiency of multivariate selection, identifying superior genotypes under both control and stress.The integration of physiological parameters with the Salt Tolerance Index (STI) served as an effective screening method for categorising genotypes into tolerant and susceptible groups. These findingshighlight the importance of using a reliable screening protocol using STI for successful soybean cultivation under salinity stress conditions. 
&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Integrating Seed Quality Traits and Salt Tolerance Indices for Efficient Screening of Salinity-Tolerant Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] Genotypes

<div style="text-align: justify;">Black gram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] is the third most important pulse crop in India after chickpea and pigeon pea. Soil salinity is one of the major factor responsible for loss in agricultural production. Forty eight black gram genotypes were evaluated for salt tolerance with six different salinity levels viz., EC0, EC4, EC7, EC10, EC13, EC16 at early seedling stage. All the seedling parameters and salt tolerant index were investigated from four days old seedlings. From the results, it was found that there was a gradual decrease with increasing levels of salinity in all the genotypes studied. Seed germination and dry matter production showed more variations than other parameters studied for all the genotypes at different salinity levels. Based on the results, it may be concluded that the genotypes VNBG 017, AUB 3 AND AUB 20 were saline tolerant and VNBG 022, AUB 31 AND AUB 12 were susceptible to salinity.&nbsp;</div>

Evaluation of black gram genotypes for saline tolerance at seedling stage &nbsp;

<div>Background: Legumes are under explored crops in comparison to staple cereal crops and decreasing agricultural lands along with waste lands and poor water resources are the main constraints for sustainable agricultural production. Chickpea is the third most important food legume, known for its high nutritive values, generally considered as relatively salt sensitive crop. Existence of large genetic variation provides opportunity to explore variations and exploit the available salinity tolerance in chickpea. &nbsp; 
 
Methods: A Randomised block design experiment was conducted to explore the salinity tolerance in 10 chickpea genotypes including CSG-8962 (Karnal Chana-1), as salt tolerant check during 2018-19 and 2019-20 under control and salinity ECiw 6 dS/m and ECiw 9 dS/m. The leachate was collected from time to time to monitor the buildup of the desired salinity. At harvesting stage, yield and yield attributing traits were recorded and yield indices were calculated to identify the potential of chickpea genotypes against salinity stress. 
 
Result: Saline irrigation water significantly decreased the number of pods/plant by 21.29% under ECiw 6 dS/m and 53.29% under ECiw 9 dS/m. Genotypes ICCV 10, CSG 8962 and DCP 92-3 retained maximum number of filled pods at ECiw 6 dS/m, while under higher salinity of ECiw 9 dS/m, CSG 8962, ICCV 10 and KWR108 had the highest filled pods. Saline water of 6 dS/m caused reduction of 36.1% - 65.0% in grain yield, which further increased to 81.0% - 98.5% with saline water of 9 dS/m. Genotypes S7 and ICCV - 10 had percent grain yield reduction of 36.13% and 41.24% respectively whereas the salt tolerant check had a percent reduction of 46.94% at ECiw 6 dS/m. Based on studied yield indices, genotypes S7, KWR108 and CSG 8962 showed relatively higher tolerance than other studied genotypes, whereas BG 256 and ICC 4463 were the most salt sensitive chickpea genotypes.</div>

<div>Identification of Salt Tolerant Chickpea Genotypes Based on Yield and Salinity Indices</div>

<div>Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important cereal crop globally and it is the staple food of more than half of world population. Current average yield is 10 to 15% lower than its potential yield. There are many reasons for this yield gap such as biotic and abiotic stresses, management strategies as well as nutrient deficiencies. Salinity is one of the most serious factors limiting the productivity of rice, with adverse effects on germination, plant vigor and crop yield. This salinity may be natural or induced by agricultural activities such as irrigation or the use of certain types of fertilizer.Salinity induced ionic imbalance and osmotic stress affect water and nutrient uptake, stomatal closure, gas exchange, photosynthesis, transpiration, carbon assimilation and hence decrease in rice yield. Studying the response of rice at physiological, genetic and molecular level is the mandate to develop salt tolerant rice varieties. This review described the impact of salt stress in rice, various types of salt tolerance mechanisms in rice, including the ion homeostasis, production of compatible organic solutes, antioxidative genes, salt responsive regulatory elements, role of ion transporters and channel proteins. Further, the future perspective of developing salt-tolerant varieties using landraces via., marker assisted breeding, genome editing tool, utilization of beneficial microorganisms.</div>

Salinity Tolerance Mechanisms in Rice: A Review

<div>Background: Chickpea at seedling stage is highly sensitive to salinity and high temperature stress. Many studies explained plant responses under independent salinity and high temperature stress, but very little findings had revealed the combined effects of these two stresses on plants. So, the present experiment was aimed to study the response of chickpea genotypes for growth parameters and stress tolerance indices at seedling stage under individual and combined salinity and high temperature stress. 
 
Methods: A laboratory experiment during rabi season of 2018-2019 was conducted with thirty chickpea genotypes by comparing their responses under different salinity stresses i.e. EC 4.0 dSm-1 and 8.0 dSm-1 and high temperature (37&deg;C). Seedling growth parameters i.e. germination percentage, vigour index and seedling dry weight along with stress tolerance indices like yield stability index and tolerance index were measured for 10-day-old seedlings. 
 
Result: The results revealed genotypic variations for all the parameters, based on which the genotypes KPG-59, IPC 2013-74 and NDG 15-6 were identified as tolerant, whereas KWR-108, BG-3075 and BG-3076 as susceptible. Interestingly, the results also showed that the tolerant genotypes exhibited maximum cross-tolerance at highest level of stress (T5) for germination percentage and vigour index, over control (T0), which might be attributed to their acclimatization while facing different stresses during early growth. So, the genotypic variations in chickpea for these parameters at germination stage might be good criteria for selection of tolerant genotypes under salinity and high temperature individually and also when combined.</div>

<div>Cross-tolerance Physiology of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genotypes under Combined Salinity and High Temperature Stress Condition</div>

<div>Salinity can affect different physiological activity of plant in various ways. A controlled study was conducted to screen 26 genotypes of groundnut under 200mM NaCl salinity stress. The salt tolerance index or STI of the genotypes ranged from 47.57% to 96.40%. Out of all the genotypes KDG-197 (STI= 96.40%) was found to be the most tolerant under a salinity stress of 200 mM NaCl and it was closely followed by R 2001-2 (STI=87.92%), VG 315 (STI=84.05%), TCGS 1157 (STI=77.59%) and TG 51 (STI=73.67%). While the genotypes Girnar 3 (STI= 47.57%), OG 52-1 (STI=49.09%), TVG 0856 (STI= 49.28%) and J 86 (STI= 50.66%) were the most susceptible genotypes based on their relative performance under stress in respect of total dry weight. It has been noted further that &nbsp;out of the nine genotypes, KDG 197 registered the minimum reduction (4.51% over control, 2.70% over control) in total chlorophyll and sugar accumulation respectively under NaCl stress whereas, Girnar 3 recorded the highest reduction in both parameters (60.00%, 70.32% over control) respectively, under saline condition. The genotype KDG 197 and R 2001-2 accounted for the highest increase in soluble protein and proline content in their leaves (144.02%, 780.16% over control) respectively than Girnar 3. KDG 197 recorded the minimum (3.39%) increase in lipid peroxidation under stress followed by R 2001-2 with an increase of 13.04% over control plants. In contrast, Girnar 3 registered the highest increase of TBARS content and electrolyte leakage (44.44%, 31.47% over control respectively) indicating maximum membrane damage but R 2001-2 recorded the minimum (3.00%) increase in electrolyte leakage percentage than Girnar 3 (31.47% over control) followed by OG 52-1 (26.14% over control) under stress. So, better osmotic adjustment through accumulation of proline, less membrane damage the leaves helped the tolerant genotypes to sustain under salinity stress in a better way than the susceptible genotypes.&nbsp;</div>

<div>Differential Responses on Chlorophyll Content, Osmolyte Accumulation and Membrane Damage Parameters under Salinity Stress on Tolerant and Susceptible Genotypes of Groundnut</div>

<div>Background: Greengram is one of the important and salt sensitive food legume crops with high nutritional quality. The area under salinity is increasing gradually due to various reasons like global warming, continues irrigation of bore well water and use of more organic fertilizers etc. Identification of salinity tolerant genotype in greengram is highly essential to improve the production and productivity. Salinity stress condition increases the absorption of more Na+ whereas the reduction of K+ absorption was noticed, which thus decreases the K+ /Na+ ratio. The first visible symptom due to salinity stress was retarded growth because of more uptake of Na+ ions leads to reduction of physiological activities. The next important character affected by salinity stress was radical growth. 
&nbsp; 
Methods: A total of 20 greengram genotypes were evaluated for salinity tolerance under four EC levels. Screening was done by roll towel method with two replications. The roll towels were placed in different buckets filled with different EC level of saline water and observations were recorded on the 8th day of germination.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 
Result: The salinity level of more than 4.0 EC dsm-1 causes gradual reduction in radicle length and at 12.0 EC level almost in all the genotypes the radicle length was reduced to half as compare to control. The correlation analysis indicated that the plumule length and radicle length were the important criteria for selection to salinity tolerance. While observing the other growth parameters like plumule and radical length reduction, dry matter weight and salinity tolerance and susceptible index the genotypes IPMD 14-10 and VGG 17-038 were identified as more tolerant genotypes and DGGV 80, PUSA-BM5 and VBN 4 were more sensitive genotypes.&nbsp;</div>

Assessment of Salinity Tolerance in Greengram [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]

The germination of halophytes in saline-alkali substrates is a useful criterion for selection tolerant alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) cultivars. The experimental conditions consisted of five levels of salinity (24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 mM) and four pH levels (7, 8, 9 and 10). The results showed that under saline conditions, the germination percentage (Gp), plumule length (Pl) and radical length (Rl) also decreased with increasing concentration. However, under low or moderate saline conditions, Pl and fresh weight decreased sharply but Rl was the longest at 48 and 72 mM and pH 7.1, which indicated that low salinity may promote radical growth appreciably. Salinity and alkalinity stresses had synergetic effects on Gp, Ge and Gi but not on Pl, Rl and fresh weight. The results confirmed Gp, Gi &nbsp;and Ge are &nbsp;important indices for assessing germinated energy of alfalfa in salinity-alkalinity soils. Moreover, three alfalfa cultivars tested were relatively tolerant of salinity and alkalinity and Stockpile was the most tolerant cultivar in the present experiment.&nbsp;

Alkalinity and salinity tolerance during seed germination and early seedling stages of three alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) cultivars

<div style="text-align:justify">Background: Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the second major global cereals mostly grown in winter season which led wheat plants to suffer with salinity stress. Twenty to thirty percent of the arable land of the world is present in the saline area. Therefore, it is necessary to develop salinity tolerant wheat varieties to meet the future food demand.&nbsp; 
 
Methods:&nbsp;A field experiment was carried out during November 2018 to March 2019 to observe the effect of salinity on yield and other desired plant characters and finally screening of wheat genotypes for salinity tolerance. The experiment was laid out in a complete randomized design containing three treatments with three replications. The treatments were three levels of salinity such as control, 8 dS m-1&nbsp;and 15 dS m-1. Multivariate and principal components analysis was executed to evaluate yield and other plant characters.&nbsp; 
 
Result:&nbsp;The results of the experiment revealed that different plant characters showed wide range of variation under different salinity levels. Biplot analysis considering PC1 and PC2 revealed that grain yield was positively correlated with grain spike-1, spike length, thousand seed weight and total tiller plant-1. Correlation study also revealed that total tiller plant-1, spikelet spike-1, grain spike-1 and thousand seed weight showed significant and positive relation with grain yield plant-1. On the basis of yield reduction percent and yield the genotypes G12 (2.51 g), G16 (2.49 g) and G4 (2.19 g) were found suitable for 15 dS m-1 salinity.</div>

Evaluation of Salinity Tolerant Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Genotypes through Multivariate Analysis of Agronomic Traits

Background: Abiotic and biotic stresses impact agricultural productivity. Rice being the stable food of India; requires more scientific intervention to boost productivity. 
&nbsp; 
Methods: Cloning and transformation of carbonic anhydrase (CA) gene in IR64 rice, molecular analysis of T1 transgenic CA rice plants, salinity tolerance index, leaf disk senescence assay, chlorophyll content, biochemical analysis of antioxidant activities of marker-free CA transgenic lines and measurement of photosynthetic activities and agronomic characteristics of CA transgenic plants were conducted.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Result: We have raised two (2) lines of marker free CA overexpressing transgenic rice (Oryza sativa L. cv. IR64) plants. The overexpression of CA driven by CaMV35S promoter in transgenic rice confers high salinity (200 mM NaCl) stress tolerance in the rice. Photosynthetic characteristics such as net photosynthetic rate (PN), stomatal conductance (gs), intercellular CO2&nbsp;(Ci), as well as chlorophyll (Chl) contents were significantly (22-31%) higher in transgenic lines under salinity stress as compared to control plants. Ascorbate peroxidase (APX), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GR) and guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) were significantly higher (21-37%) in transgenics as compared with VC and WT plants. Overall, the present research is focused to develop marker free CA overexpressing transgenic lines for better tolerance against salinity stress, higher photosynthesis and better productivity. 
&nbsp;