Six hundred accessions of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) landraces and its wild relatives from 28 different countries, available at Australian Temperate and Field Crops Collection (ATFCC) were screened for tolerance to salt under greenhouse conditions using three sampling strategies; (1) random sampling of 200 accessions from different countries, (2) restricted random sampling of 200 accessions from geographical regions with salinity problems and high diversity (Middle East and West & South Asia) and (3) as for strategy 1 but with a reduced representation of accessions from the geographical regions used in strategy 2. Degree of salt tolerance was based on necrosis scores and shoot biomass reduction relative to unstressed controls at harvest after subjecting stressed plants to salt treatment from 21 to 42 days after sowing. There was a wide variation in salinity tolerance determined by both measures. For sampling strategies 1, 2 and 3 respectively; 24, 28 and 14% of accessions were salt tolerant. Accessions from the middle east and south Asian (regions with salinity problem, a long history of chickpea cultivation and high diversity) gave a higher probability (P < 0.01) of getting salt tolerant accessions. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
Research Group:	Crop and Pasture Production
Research Field:	Crop and Pasture Improvement (Selection and Breeding)
Objective Division:	Plant Production and Plant Primary Products
Objective Group:	Winter Grains and Oilseeds
Objective Field:	Grain Legumes
UTAS Author:	McNeil, DL (Professor David McNeil)
ID Code:	41752
Year Published:	2008
Web of Science® Times Cited:	18
Deposited By:	Agricultural Science
Deposited On:	2008-04-08
Last Modified:	2008-04-08
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