Selekte edilmiş ileri kademelerde çerezlil kabak (Cucurbita pepo L.) hatlarının tuz stresine toleranslarının belirlenmesi

Salinity, a global problem, negatively affects physiological and biochemical events as well as the morphological structure of plants, making agricultural production unsustainable day by day. Although many methods can be applied to combat salinity, breeding salt-tolerant rootstocks or varieties is preferred as the most effective strategy in this regard. This study was carried out to determine the salt tolerance levels of 25 selected morphologically characterized S4 grade seed pumpkin lines (shelled and unshelled) with high seed yield and high potential to be used as seed pumpkin. Plants were grown in 136 L pots using aerated hydroponic culture technique under control and 10 dS/m salt stress conditions for 28 days. According to the morphological and physiological parameters examined, the tolerance levels of seed pumpkin lines to salt stress were determined. When the results were evaluated in general, lines 8 and 13 were found to be the most sensitive lines to salt stress among all the seed pumpkin lines. Among the unshelled lines, especially lines 2, 6 and 18, and among the shelled lines 24 and 25 showed more tolerance to saline conditions compared to the others. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to classify the lines based on biomass and physiological traits of the seed pumpkin lines grown under salt stress conditions. According to the analysis, two principal components (PC 1: 98.56% and PC 2: 0.91%) accounted for about 99% of the total variation. In addition, correlation analysis was performed to determine the direction and significance of the relationship between the parameters analyzed. The determined lines with high salt stress tolerance can be directly recommended for cultivation in regions with salinity problems, as well as contributing to the creation of qualified gene pools to be used in breeding studies to be carried out in order to develop hybrid varieties, which is the biggest deficiency of the seed pumpkin sector. Key Words: Seed pumpkin, Salt stress, Selection, Tolerant