The role of salt (NaCl) stress on seed germination, growth and proline content of some tomato varieties

The tomato production continuously needs to be improved to fulfill the demand of food industry and medicine. The soil salinity is a limiting factor in germination, growth and production of tomatoes. Therefore, screening was done using salt-tolerant tomato to examine the tolerance mechanism of some tomato varieties. Six tomatoes varieties, i.e., Betavilla, Permata, Servo, Tymoty, Mutia, and Patma were tested using various NaCl concentrations in the growth medium. The germination and growth rate of the varieties on a range of salt conditions were examined to find varieties that were resistant to salt. This study showed that Permata, Servo, and Mutia are more tolerant to the salt when compared with Betavilla, Tymoty, and Patma. Moreover, salt-sensitive varieties accumulated proline in leaf higher than saline-tolerance one. The condition suggested that mechanism of salt-tolerance in the varieties is other than proline accumulation. Further study is require to understand the salt-tolerant mechanism in tomatoes.