Salt tolerance of three Iranian Millets at seedling stage

Salt stress is considered as a restricting factor for plant products. Various species have different levels of tolerance to salt stress. In this research seeds of Millet (Panicum miliaceum L.), cultivars (Talkhonche, Shiraz and Isfahan) were put in Petri dishes under 0, 200, 300 and 400 mg/lit concentrations of NaCl in the same light condition for one week. The seeds of Millet after sterilization were treated by different concentrations of NaCl and after germination some physiological traits were determined in treated 1 week old seedlings. Our results showed that salinity increased fresh and dry weight of shoot, fresh weight of root and chlorophyll content in Talkhonche cultivar, and in Isfahan cultivar these parameters and dry weight of root were decreased. In Shiraz cultivar, fresh and dry weight of shoot and fresh weight of root increased by salinity. Results of this study showed that Talkhonche cultivar was salt resistance? Shiraz cultivar semi-resistance and Isfahan cultivar was salt sensitive in seedling stage.