Determination of salt tolerance levels and genetic relationships of Vicia sativa cultivars using gene targeted functional markers

The objectives of the present study were to determine salt tolerance levels of 12 different common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) cultivars at germination stage in the presence of 250 mM NaCl and to reveal genetic relationships based on gene targeted functional markers (GTFMs) associated with salt tolerance. The results revealed the presence of a significant genetic variation among the cultivars although salt stress significantly reduced all germination parameters tested. The cultivar Ozveren was the most salt tolerant with 20.1% reduction in final germination percentage compared to control seeds while cultivars Alınoglu, Ayaz and Bakir did not germinate. The maximum delays in germination rate (G50 = 3.78 days) and synchrony (G10-90 = 3.45 days) were obtained from the cultivars Urkmez and Ozveren, respectively. The GTFMs provided a total of 53.1% polymorphism. The primers of MtSOS2 gene gave the highest numbers of alleles per primer pair while the highest polymorphism rate (77.8%) was obtained from the MtP5CS gene. The first three components of principal component analysis explained 57.63% of total variation. This study concluded that the cultivars determined to be salt tolerant and sensitive at germination stage distributed into three main clades determined by UPGMA analysis while the GTFMs associated with salt tolerance successfully determined the genetic relationships of common vetch cultivars