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Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 48-56.doi: 10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.casb2025-0221

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Effect of NaCl and Na2SO4 Salt Stress on the Germination of Upland Cotton Seeds and Screening of Salt-tolerant Germplasm

LUO Jing1(), DU Shanshan1, YAO Qingqing1, WANG Dongli1, HE Zhongsheng1, SUN Huijian1(), WANG Ruijun2   

  1. 1 Xinjiang Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture Agricultural Science Research Institute, Korla, Xinjiang 841000
    2 The Agricultural Development Service Center of the Second Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Korla, Xinjiang 841000
  • Received:2025-03-20 Revised:2025-10-11 Online:2026-02-15 Published:2026-02-09

Abstract:

In response to the salt stress caused by NaCl and Na2SO4 in saline soil that restricts cotton production, and the problem that single salt stress identification is not comprehensive, in order to screen stable salt-tolerant varieties and comprehensively evaluate the salt tolerance of different materials, this study used 75 land cotton varieties as the experimental materials and simulated salt stress with 150 mmol/L NaCl and Na2SO4. The five traits such as germination potential, germination rate, hypocotyl length, root length and fresh weight were measured. Principal component analysis, membership function method and cluster analysis were used to comprehensively evaluate the salt tolerance. The results revealed as follows. (1) Compared with the control group, both salt stresses had different degrees of inhibitory effects on various germination indicators, and the inhibitory effect of Na2SO4 was stronger than that of NaCl. (2) Cluster analysis showed that under the Euclidean distance of 5, both salt stresses could divide the tested materials into 5 salt tolerance grades. Under NaCl salt stress, there were 6 high-tolerance varieties (accounting for 8.00%), 13 salt-tolerant varieties (accounting for 17.33%), 22 medium-tolerant varieties (accounting for 29.33%), 25 sensitive varieties (accounting for 33.33%), and 9 highly-sensitive varieties (accounting for 12.00%); under Na2SO4 salt stress, there was only 1 high-tolerance variety (accounting for 1.33%), 6 salt-tolerant varieties (accounting for 8.00%), 16 medium-tolerant varieties (accounting for 21.33%), 37 sensitive varieties (accounting for 49.33%), and 15 highly-sensitive varieties (accounting for 20.00%). (3) Under both salt stress conditions, materials with consistent salt tolerance performance were 22 in total, including 1 high-tolerance variety and 1 salt-tolerant variety. The salt tolerance of different land cotton varieties at the germination stage showed significant differences. 'Zhongmiansuo 96B' and 'Xinluzhong 73' were stable salt-tolerant varieties under both salt stress conditions. In the future, combined with the identification of salt tolerance at the seedling stage and molecular marker analysis, the research on the salt tolerance mechanism can be deepened, providing more comprehensive support for cotton salt-tolerance breeding.

Key words: upland cotton, seed, germination period, NaCl, Na2SO4, correlation analysis, principal component analysis, membership function, cluster analysis