The Effect of Salinity on Some Physiological and Biochemical Characteristics of Pepper (Capsicum annum L.) Genotypes

In dry and semi-arid areas, water and soil salinity can limit crop production. Evaluation of plants salt tolerance to grow in saline areas is, therefore, important. To investigate the effects of salinity on ten different pepper genotypes, a factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design was carried out with three replications at Lorestan University Greenhouse, in 2014. The first factor was salinity treatment using sodium chloride (NaCl) at four levels of zero, 25, 50 and 75 mmol per liter (mM); the second one consisted of 10 different genotypes of Chili pepper (including Bane, Mahal, Sabzevar, Urmia, Minab, Tabriz, Lordegan, Branch, Maragheh and Ghale-jigh). Statistical analysis indicated that the characteristics of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, carotenoids, fresh and dry weights of root and leaf dry weight were significantly reduced with increasing salinity level. Therefore, all studied traits in the 75 mM salinity level had experienced the most decrease, as compared to the control. The results also showed that only the amount of proline was increased with raising salinity, so the least amount of proline belonged to the control treatment, while the highest one was observed for 75 mM treatment.