Effect of Salinity on Germination and Root Growth of Jordanian Barley

The fundamental aim of this study was to investigate the growth responses of selected Jordanian cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genotypes to the salinity stress. Twenty-six landraces and two recent cultivars were subjected to four levels of salinity (0, 50, 100 and 200 mM NaCl). The salt stress was found to influence the majority of germination ability such as germination % which ranged from about 80% to 100% (One-way ANOVA; p ≤ 0.05). Moreover, germination was statistically affected in correspondence to exposure time to salinity and in relation to genotypic composition of studied barley (two-row vs. six-row accessions) (Two-Way ANOVA; p ≤ 0.05). Early seedling growth traits were also found to decline with increasing salinity stress. Moreover, according to the growth parameters genotypes, M’ 1595, M’ 1593, Ir 1558, Ir 1631, Ir 1639, Mf 1545, and Mf 1548 were found to have better performance than others. On the other hand, the genotypes M’ 1593, M’ 1594, M’ 1595, Ir 1558, Ra 1552, Ra 1611, Mf 1616, Mf 1617, and Ma 1592 were most affected genotypes by salinity. The results of this study lead to the conclusion that the response to the salinity stress is complex, yet the comprehensive results found in this study provide a foundation for deeper exploration of diversity as well as the gene–trait relationships and their utilization in future barley improvement