ABSTRACT
Effects of salt stress on tolerant accessions of quinoa at the morphological and metabolic levels

Leslie Cueva-Flores1, Raymundo Gutierrez-Rosales2, Omar Zeballos1, Jorge Condori-Apfata3, Luis Lipa-Mamani1, Dennis Macedo-Valdivia1, Luz Gomez-Pando4, Cankui Zhang5, Eric N. Jellen6, and Mayela Elizabeth Mayta Anco1*
 
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a facultative halophyte recognized for its genetic variability and high tolerance to salinity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of NaCl on three accessions of quinoa from the Camacani germplasm bank of the National University of the Altiplano, Perú, at three NaCl concentrations (0, 200 and 400 mM) under greenhouse conditions. Four morphological variables (plant height, root length, percentage of root DM, and aerial DM), as well as seven metabolic variables (chlorophyll, proline, phenols, flavonoids, saponins, amino acids and proteins content by spectrophotometric analysis) and electrolyte leakage (EL) in leaves were analyzed. Increasing NaCl exposure was positively correlated with increases in EL, proline, and saponin, while negatively correlated with leaf protein content. In accession PECQ 20037, for example, foliar protein content varied from 18.7% at 0 mM NaCl to 10.57% at 400 mM NaCl. The results indicated that accessions PECQ 20037 and Negra Oruro tolerated the 400 mM NaCl concentration better than Sajama.
Keywords: Chenopodium quinoa, NaCl, morphological variables, metabolic variables.
1Universidad Nacional de San Agustín, Facultad de Agronomía, 04001, Arequipa, Perú.
2Universidad Nacional Agraria de La Molina, Facultad de Ingeniería Agrícola, 15012, Lima, Perú.
3Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias Agrarias (FICA), 1001, Chachapoyas, Perú.
4Universidad Nacional Agraria de La Molina, Departamento de Fitotecnia, Facultad de Agronomía, 15012, Lima, Perú.
5Purdue University, Department of Agronomy and Center for Plant Biology, 47907, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
6Brigham Young University, Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences, College of Life Sciences, 84602, Provo, Utah, USA.
*Corresponding author (mmaytaan@unsa.edu.pe).