Salt tolerance of four okra cutivars namely : white velvet ; Gold coast ; Balady and Eskandarani, were investigated during three different stages of plant development namely : seed germination, seedling and reproductive stages. At both first and second stages of plant development various concentrations of sea water (diluted with tap water) were used for irrigation while at the third stage, various saline water with different electronic conductivities were used for irrigation
Results of these studies revealed that salinity reduced and delayed seed germination At this stage, white velvet cv. appeared to be tolerant to salinity. At the seedling stage, salinity generally reduced hash weight of plant for all tested cuitivars and Gold coast was the lead affected one At the reproductive stage, salinity reduced plant growth and total yield/plant but with different degrees depending upon cultivar In this respect, yield of both Gold coast and Balady was not greatly reduced at the high level of salinity
The anatomical studies showed that salinity reduced xylem and phloem elements in okra roots depending upon both salinity level and cultivar
Generally, the obtained results suggest that both Gold coast and Balady okra cultivars can considered as tolerant genotypes to salinity and recommended for cultivation in both and and semi-arid lands where salinity is considered a potential problem
Capsicum annuum WRKY protein CaWRKY1 is a negative regulator of pathogen defense
