Male Gametophytic Screening of Citrus Genotypes for Salt Stress Tolerance

Citrus species are classified as a sensitive group of trees to salt stress, but the levels of their sensitivity or tolerance to salt are different among cultivars. In order to evaluate the effects of salinity stress on pollen germination of some citrus cultivars, an experiment was performed in factorial, based on completely randomized design in three replications with Cleopatra mandarin (Citrus reshni) and Poncirus trifoliata as tolerant and sensitive controls along with 13 genotypes. Pollen grains of these genotypes were cultured in media containing different levels of sodium chloride (0, 0.87, 1.6, 2.4, 3.1 dS/m) along with 15% sucrose, 0.7% agar and 100 mg/L boric acid. In order to understand the biochemical responses of pollen grains to salt stress, they were cultured in liquid media with three levels of salinity (i.e. 0, 0.87 and 1.6 dS/m) and then the amounts of total protein and enzyme activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) were evaluated. Significant differences of pollen germination (P ≤ 0.01) were observed in different salinity levels, but there were no significant differences in pollen tube growth. Pollen germination in Cleopatra was greater in comparison to Poncirus trifoliate, indicating that Cleopatra is a tolerant cultivar. The amounts of total protein and enzyme activities of SOD and APX were influenced by genotypes, salinity levels and their interactions (P ≤ 0.01). Considering the fastness and accuracy of this type of experiment, the evaluation of citrus pollen responses may, potentially, be hired as an initial screening criteria for detecting salt-sensitive varieties from the tolerant citrus ones.