Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Plant Science Today (PST)

Research Articles

Vol. 13 No. 3 (2026)

Effects of salt stress on morpho-biological traits of cotton in laboratory condition

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.13232
Submitted
16 December 2025
Published
13-05-2026 — Updated on 03-07-2026
Versions

Abstract

Approximately 830 million hectares of agricultural land are exploited for human consumption, with 6 % being severely saline. If salinity levels continue to rise, 50 % of existing crops might be under salinity stress by 2050. Cotton growth suffers when soil salt levels rise year after year. Cotton has moderate resilience to salt stress, with tolerance levels of up to 7.7 dS/m-1 (decisiemens per meter). Abiotic stress-tolerant cotton lines and contemporary molecular breeding technologies are critical for creating high-quality, high-yielding novel cotton varieties under abiotic stress conditions. In this study, a recombinant inbred line population was used as the experimental material. Recombinant inbred line (RIL) population obtained by crossing Namangan-77 and KK-1795 cotton genotypes were phenotypically evaluated under control, 100 mM NaCl and 200 mM NaCl salt stress conditions. Various morpho-biological traits were evaluated, including total plant length (TPL), total shoot length (TShL), total root length (TRL), fresh plant weight (FPW), fresh shoot weight (FShW), fresh root weight (FRW), dry shoot weight (DShW), dry root weight (DRW), leaf number (LN) and chlorophyll content in normal condition (ChlC). Correlation analysis of morphological traits revealed highly significant links among the 10 cotton traits grown in laboratory conditions. The TPL showed a significant and strong correlation with FPW and significantly positive correlations were identified between DShW and LN. Also, TRL exhibited a significant positive correlation with FRW and DRW under salt stress conditions. The analysis revealed that salt-tolerant RILs identified were RIL-05, RIL-09, RIL-11, RIL-17, RIL-45, RIL-48, RIL-53, RIL-54, RIL-56, RIL-58, RIL-60, RIL-65, RIL-75 and RIL-85. These results suggest that selected RILs genotypes will be valuable genetic materials for developing salt-stress-resistant cotton varieties.

References

  1. 1. Munns R, Tester M. Mechanisms of salinity tolerance. Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2008;59:651–81. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.arplant.59.032607.092911
  2. 2. Ismail A, Horie T. Genomics, physiology and molecular breeding approaches for improving salt tolerance. Annu Rev Plant Biol. 2017;68:405–34. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-042916-040936
  3. 3. Parida A, Das A. Salt tolerance and salinity effects on plants: A review. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2005;60(3):324–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2004.06.010
  4. 4. Han J, Shi J, Zeng L, Xu J, Wu L. Effects of nitrogen fertilization on the acidity and salinity of greenhouse soils. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2015;22(4):2976–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3542-z
  5. 5. Liang W, Ma X, Wan P, Liu L. Plant salt-tolerance mechanism: A review. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2018;495(1):286–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2017.11.043
  6. 6. Higbie S, Fei W, Stewart J, Sterling T, Lindemann W, Hughs E, et al. Physiological response to salt (NaCl) stress in selected cultivated tetraploid cottons. Int J Agron. 2010;2010:643475. https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/643475
  7. 7. He Y, Yang B, He Y, Zhan C, Cheng Y, Zhang J, et al. A quantitative trait locus, qSE3, promotes seed germination and seedling establishment under salinity stress in rice. Plant J. 2019;97(6):1089–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.14181
  8. 8. Galvan-Ampudia S, Julkowska M, Darwish E, Gandullo J, Korver A, Brunoud G, et al. Halotropism is a response of plant roots to avoid a saline environment. Curr Biol. 2013;23(20):2044–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.08.042
  9. 9. Robbins E, Trontin C, Duan L, Dinneny R. Beyond the barrier: Communication in the root through the endodermis. Plant Physiol. 2014;166(2):551–9. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.114.244871
  10. 10. Paul D, Lade H. Plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria to improve crop growth in saline soils: A review. Agron Sustain Dev. 2014;34(4):737–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-014-0233-6
  11. 11. Gao W, Xu C, Guo D, Zhao R, Liu J, Guo W, et al. Calcium-dependent protein kinases in cotton: Insights into early plant responses to salt stress. BMC Plant Biol. 2018;18(1):15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-018-1230-8
  12. 12. Frouin J, Languillaume A, Mas J, Mieulet D, Boisnard A, Labeyrie A, et al. Tolerance to mild salinity stress in japonica rice: A genome-wide association mapping study highlights calcium signaling and metabolism genes. PLoS One. 2018;13(1):e0190964. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190964
  13. 13. Taghizadeh N, Ranjbar A, Nematzadeh A, Ramazani M. Salt-related genes expression pattern in salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive cultivars of cotton (Gossypium sp.) under NaCl stress. J Plant Mol Breed. 2018;6(1):1–15. https://doi.org/10.22058/jpmb.2018.75866.1151
  14. 14. Peng Z, He S, Sun J, Pan Z, Gong W, Lu Y, et al. Na(+) compartmentalization related to salinity stress tolerance in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) seedlings. Sci Rep. 2016;6:34548. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep34548
  15. 15. Kakar N, Jumaa H, Redoña D, Warburton M, Reddy K. Evaluating rice for salinity using pot-culture provides a systematic tolerance assessment at the seedling stage. Rice. 2019;12(1):57. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12284-019-0317-7
  16. 16. Loka D, Oosterhuis D, Ritchie G. Water deficit stress in cotton. In: Stress physiology in cotton. Cotton Foundation Reference Book Ser. 2011;7:37–72.
  17. 17. Ahmad S, Ashraf M, Khan I, Jabbar A. Genetic basis of salt-tolerance in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L). Sci Tech Dev. 2004;23(1):45–50.
  18. 18. Chaudhry U, Ali M, Ahmad F, Sarfraz M, Hussain S. Salinity tolerance in cotton. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1472-2_19
  19. 19. Guo W, Maas S, Bronson K. Relationship between cotton yield and soil electrical conductivity, topography and Landsat imagery. Precis Agric. 2012;13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-012-9277-2
  20. 20. Zhan Y, Wu Q, Chen Y, Tang M, Sun C, Sun J, et al. Comparative proteomic analysis of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) seedlings under salt stress. BMC Genomics. 2019;20(1):381. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-019-5737-7
  21. 21. Zhao G, Song Y, Wang Q, Yao D, Li D, Qin W, et al. Gossypium hirsutum salt tolerance is enhanced by overexpression of G. arboreum JAZ1. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2020;8:157. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00157
  22. 22. Beyyavaş V, Ramazanoglu E, Sakin E, Cevheri C, Seyrek A. Responses of some soil enzymes and cotton plant to foliar application of ferrous sulfate in a calcareous alkaline soil. J Plant Nutr. 2023;46. https://doi.org/10.1080/01904167.2023.2205878
  23. 23. Normamatov I, Makamov A, Boykobilov U, Achilov S, Khusenov N, Norbekov J, et al. Morpho-biological traits of upland cotton at the germination stage under optimal and salinity soil conditions. Asian J Plant Sci. 2023;22:165–72. https://doi.org/10.3923/ajps.2023.165.172
  24. 24. Maggio A, Raimondi G, Martino A, De Pascale S. Salt stress response in tomato beyond the salinity tolerance threshold. Environ Exp Bot. 2007;59(3):276–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2006.02.002
  25. 25. Tiwari S, Singh P, Tiwari R, Meena K, Yandigeri M, Singh P, et al. Salt-tolerant rhizobacteria-mediated induced tolerance in wheat (Triticum aestivum) and chemical diversity in rhizosphere enhance plant growth. Biol Fertil Soils. 2011;47:907–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-011-0598-5
  26. 26. Filippi P, Cattle S, Bishop T, Pringle M, Jones E. Monitoring changes in soil salinity and sodicity to depth, at a decadal scale, in a semiarid irrigated region of Australia. Soil Res. 2018;56. https://doi.org/10.1071/SR18083
  27. 27. Sharif I, Aleem S, Farooq J, Rizwan M, Younas A, Sarwar G, et al. Salinity stress in cotton: Effects, mechanism of tolerance and its management strategies. Physiol Mol Biol Plants. 2019;25:807–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12298-019-00676-2
  28. 28. Sanamyan M, Bobokhujayev Sh. Identification of univalent chromosomes in monosomic lines of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) by means of cytogenetic markers. Vavilov J Genet Breed. 2019;23(7):836–45. https://doi.org/10.18699/VJ19.557
  29. 29. Meloni D, Oliva M, Ruiz H, Martinez C. Contribution of proline and inorganic solutes to osmotic adjustment in cotton under salt stress. J Plant Nutr. 2001;24:599–612. https://doi.org/10.1081/PLN-100104983
  30. 30. Munawar W, Hameed A, Khan M. Differential morphophysiological and biochemical responses of cotton genotypes under various salinity stress levels during early growth stage. Front Plant Sci. 2021;12:622309. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.622309
  31. 31. Ibrahim W, Qiu W, Zhang C, Cao F, Shuijin Z, Wu F. Comparative physiological analysis in the tolerance to salinity and drought individual and combination in two cotton genotypes with contrasting salt tolerance. Physiol Plant. 2019;165(2):155–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppl.12791

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.