Indian Journal of Agricultural Biochemistry

The immature inflorescences of moderately tolerant (IS 3566), tolerant (IS 23217 Zm.138) and sensitive (IS 23253 Zm.321) accessions(characterized from previous studies) of sorghum collected from field grown plants were inoculated on MS medium (containing different concentrations of NaCl and MgSO₄) supplemented with 1.5 mg/l 2,4-D for callus induction and 0.25 mg/l BA for regeneration. Data were collected on frequency of callus induction, frequency of embryogenic calli, total callus quantity, embryogenic callus quantity and regeneration frequency under different salinity levels. With an increase in salinity level, there was decrease in all the in vitro characters. In control, moderately tolerant accession of sorghum (IS 3566) showed better response, but in salinity treatments IS 23217 Zm.138, identified as tolerant at plant level retained its tolerant nature under in vitro conditions also. Therefore, it is suggested that, the in vitro screening using callus cultures can be applied for large scale screening of germplasm to identify the salt tolerant and sensitive genotypes