EFFECTS OF SALT STRESS ON THE GROWTH TRAITS OF CHICKPEA (CICER ARIETINUM L.) AND PEA (PISUM SATIVUM L.) SEEDLINGS

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and pea (Pisum sativum L.) both are important legume crops grown throughout the world for protein and they also contain essential vitamins and fibers. Chick pea and pea are very sensitive to abiotic stress that includes heat, drought, cold and salt stress conditions. To access the effects of salt stress on the chick pea and pea an experiment was performed in the Green House of Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Lahore. The seeds of both genotypes were grown in 18 pots with 2 kg pure sand and applied different concentrations of NaCl stress after 7 days of germination. The application of salt treatments was repeated 4 times each after 7days interval and data of different morphological traits was recorded each time. The treatments were included control, 0.25Molar NaCl, 0.5Molar NaCl concentrations. The data was recorded and pooled analysis of variance was carried out for significance of results. The average root length was recorded as 5.7522±0.0211cm and shoot length (11.139±0.0011cm) while average fresh plant weight was recorded as 0.5811±0.0002g under different salt stress conditions. The finding of our result proved that both varieties chickpea and pea showed variable behavior under salt stress conditions while the pea genotype showed more tolerant against different salt treatments which indicated pea genotypes may be used for future breeding to improve yield and growth of pea crop. The results showed that there was significant and positive correlation among root length, shoot length and leaf length of chickpea and pea seedlings which concluded that root length and shoot length may be used as selection criteria to induced stress tolerance in crop plants.