GERMINATION, GROWTH AND CATALASE ACTIVITY OF GRASSPEA GENOTYPES UNDER LABORATORY CONDITION

Five grasspea genotypes (BD-3367, BD-3372, BD-3398, BD-4750, and BD-4779) were tested against varying levels of salinity 0, 5dS/m, 10dS/m and 15 dS/m in HYPONeX solution under laboratory condition during 2016-2017, to study the salt tolerance of the genotypes at germination and seedling stages along with coping performance on enzymatic activity performance to muddle through the stress. As control tretment, distilled water (0 dS/m) was used. Germination percentage (GP), root length (RL), shoot length (SL) and enzymatic activity (catalase) performance were significantly found to be affected by salinity. The genotypes BD-3398 showed better performance at 5 dS/m, and 10 dS/m and survived up to 15 days after germination. At 15 dS/m salinity level no genotypes can survive. In case of Catalase (CAT) activity, it was found that due to increased salinity, the catalase activity increased. Grasspea genotype BD-3398 showed the better result than all other grasspea genotypes in Catalase (CAT) activity.