Isolation and characterization of NaCl resistant callus culture of field pea (Pisum sativum, L.) to salinity

Callus cultures were initiated from epicotyls of field pea (Pisum sativum, L. cv.Solara).Growing cells were exposed to increasing concentrations of NaCl on modified PC L 2 basal medium.A callus culture were exposed to different concentration of NaCl from 0 -400 mol m -3 .The concentration of 400 mol m -3 NaCl proved completely inhibitory to the growth of calli.After incubation the cell suspensions for 28 days cells which tolerate this concentration of NaCl grew to form cell clones.Selected clones were characterized with regard to their growth behavior, K + , Na + and free proline contents when callus grown under stress as well as on normal media were compared with the normal sensitive callus.Under normal conditions, however, the amounts of free proline in selected and non selected calli were compared.Salt selected cells accumulated higher levels of free proline under NaCl stress compared to wild type cells.The selected callus was capable of growing on medium containing NaCl at the inhibitory concentration.The K + content of the selected callus was lower in the case of the NaCl medium than for the normal medium.However, with increasing salinity concentrations however, the selected clones maintained higher K + and Na + levels, compared with the wild type cells.