Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1483409

Comprehensive assessment to reveal salt tolerance potential of cultivated eggplants and their wild relatives

Provisionally accepted
Esra Cebeci Esra Cebeci 1*Hatice Filiz Boyaci Hatice Filiz Boyaci 2Sevinc Kiran Sevinc Kiran 3Sekure Sebnem Ellialtioglu Sekure Sebnem Ellialtioglu 3
  • 1 Batı Akdeniz Agricultural Research Institute (BATEM), Antalya, Türkiye
  • 2 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Rize, Rize, Türkiye
  • 3 Ankara University, Ankara, Ankara, Türkiye

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study aimed to uncover salt tolerant eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) genotypes and accessions. Crop wild relatives (S. macrocarpon L., S. linnaeanum, S. incanum L., S. insanum L. S. sisymbriifolium Lam.), commercial varieties (Topan374, Kemer, Amadeo, Faselis, Bildircin) and local genotypes (TB, BB, MK, AH) were investigated under 150 mM NaCl stress. The trial experiment was set in a completely randomized block design with three replications. Morphologic and biochemical parameters were studied to distinguish salt tolerant genotypes. Wild relatives have species specific growth features, thus morphologic features such as; plant height and leaf area found inappropriate to compare their salt tolerance level. In eggplant, Na + is the major harmful ion and there is a negative correlation between leaf Na + content and plant tolerance index. The low Na + concentration in roots of BB and S. linnaeanum caused high K + and Ca 2+ concentrations in their leaves. A plant with high proline accumulation displays greater tolerance under stress conditions. Proline content of S. linnaeanum, S. incanum L. and MK was analysed higher than the others. Additionally, the lowest Malondialdehyde (MDA) increases were observed in S. linnaeanum, TB, and S. incanum L. Moreover, positive correlations were spotted between 0-5 scale values and MDA, Na + level in shoots by correlation analysis and strong correlations between proline accumulation -S. linnaeanum and MDA accumulation -AH were revealed by principal component analysis (PCA). In terms of results the most salt tolerant, S. linnaeanum, S. incanum L., BB, and MK will be employed in future breeding studies to improve salt tolerant inbred lines and varieties through interspecific hybridization. Material and MethodsA total of 14 eggplant genotypes and accessions from different geographic regions consisted of crop wild relatives (CWRs) which were originated from continental Africa, local genotypes and commercial varieties comparatively investigated under 0 and 150 mM NaCl doses to reveal their salt tolerance levels. Information regarding the plant materials is presented in Table 1. Table 1. Codes, species names and providing sources of the eggplant accessions Code/Name Species name Type Providing source

    Keywords: eggplant, Correlation, Crop wild relatives, Malondialdehyde, PCA, Proline, salt stress

    Received: 19 Aug 2024; Accepted: 02 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Cebeci, Boyaci, Kiran and Ellialtioglu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Esra Cebeci, Batı Akdeniz Agricultural Research Institute (BATEM), Antalya, Türkiye

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.