towels. The experimental design with the three treatments was arranged for every cultivar: 1. Control - seeds germinated in deionized water; 2. Seeds, germinated in a solution of 100mM NaCl;

3. Seeds, germinated in a solution of 100mM NaSO4. The experiment was conducted in Petri plate on filter paper beds in a thermostat. 20 seeds were sown in Petri plate and germinated on papers imbibed in distilled water or in sodium chloride solutions or sodium sulphate solutions at a proportion of 2.5 times the weight of the paper. The Petri plate incubated at 25°C. The filter paper beds were changed after 48 hours in order to avoid salt accumulation (13). Water uptake: Water uptake was recorded for 12 hours and the per cent was calculated under the following formula (13): Water uptake, %= [(W₂-W₁)]/W₁Jx100; where W₁ was the initial weight of seeds and W₂ was the weight of seeds after water absorption. Germination: The emergence of radical/plumule or root/shoot from seeds was taken as an index of germination (%) which was recorded daily for up to 9 days. After that salt tolerance was calculated using the following ratio (13): Salt tolerance = A/B x 100; where A = germination/growth in treated seedlings, and B = germination/growth in control plants. The seedling growth evaluation was carried out in Rules (12). Ten seeds were distributed on the germination paper, pre-imbibed in NaCl, Na₂SO, and distilled H₂O solutions. After 9 days in a 25°C germinator, the shoot length (SL), root length (RL), shoot weight (SW) and root weight (RW) were measured. The total seedling length (TL) and the RL:SL ratio were calculated out of these data. The respiration was measured with a portable infrared gas analyzer LCA-4 (Analytical Development Company Ltd., Hoddesdon, England), equipped with a PLCB-4 chamber in dark. Each treatment was replicated thrice. Statistical analysis Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA (for P<0.05). Based on the ANOVA results, a DUNCAN-test for mean comparison was performed, for a 95% confutation level, to test for significant differences among treatments. In the tables, different letters (a,b,c) after the values within the same column express significant difference. BIOTECHNOL. & BIOTECHNOL. EQ. 23/2009/SE SPECIAL EDITION/ON-LINE 327 Results Germination percentage: The results of seed germination are shown in Figure 1. Specific ionic effects were evident as different responses were obtained with different salt treatments at iso-molar concentration. It was observed that the germination of seeds treated with Na SO, is stronger inhibited than that treated with NaCl. This tendency was observed in the three cultivars, but it was most strongly expressed in Lody cultivar. germination (%) 120 100 8872 80 5 00 40 20 0 Lody Yisleidy Fro Coronado Gine Tara Control NaCl ONA,SO. Fig.1. Total germination of seed of tree bean cultivars submitted to salt stress, Seedling growth The results from the initial growth of the seedlings and roots also show presence of considerable inhibition in the salt- treated variants (Table 1). It is seen that the inhibiting effect of Na SO, is by 20% stronger than that of NaCl. This tendency is observed in the three cultivars, but is strongest in Gina cultivar both with respect to the hypocotile growth and the root. Although both salts show inhibiting effect, that of Na₂SO4 is stronger again and in Gina cultivar inhibition reaches up to 80% of the control. As regards to RL/HL and WR/WH ratio, the salt-treated seeds show results above the control. With respect to RL/HL they exceed it by approximately 30-40% and with respect to the second index (WR/WH) by 60% above the control (Gina and Tara cultivars). Water uptake and respiration The results from Figure 2 show that water uptake is reduced in salt-treated seeds, compared with those treated with distilled water. In this way when seeds of Lody cultivar are treated with NaCl, the inhibition of this index is 17% and in the variant treated with Na₂SO4 - 32% of the control. The inhibition under this index is lower compared to both salts. The data represented on Figure 2 show too, that salinity stress has a negative effect on the dark respiration of the XI ANNIVERSARY SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE 120 YEARS OF ACADEMIC EDUCATION IN BIOLOGY 45 YEARS FACULTY OF BIOLOGY Yesterdy Thos yoludy Fhos Coronado ANALYSIS TEMPLATE-Fill one in for each figure or table Figure or Table Number (indicate which Figure or Table): 1) "Official" title for this figure or table (from the caption): Effect Of Salinity on germination and seed phisolos y in Bean 2) My (simplified, decoded, in regular language) title for this figure or table: 3) The specific hypothesis being tested, or specific question being asked in the experiment represented in this Figure or Table is: Next, refer to your cartoon of what the experimenters did, and to your annotated figure, and to the information you wrote in above. Then, answer the following for each figure or table: A. For each Figure determine the following: - Is there a control? If so, how is it defined or set up? If not, what is being compared? - What is the variable that is being measured? - How does that variable change? -What is the response that is being measured? -How does the variable affect the responses? - What does this figure tell you? B. For each Table determine the following: - What information is being presented? What does this Table tell you? 4) What are you main conclusions based on the results? For each conclusion, refer to each figure and table to that you use to form that conclusion (you may combine several figures and tables to make one conclusion). 5) The following issues are ones of concern to me: (these can be things you don't understand, or criticisms of the method, questions for the authors, or anything else that comes to mind) Yisleidy Fnos Coronado Effect of salinity on early seedling growth LH-hypocotil length (cm); LR-root length (cm);TL-total length; WH-hypocotil biomass (g); WR root biomass (g). Parameters LH Lody-control NaCL Na SO Gyna-contr NaCL Na SO Tara-contr NaCL Na SO R (μmol CO₂g"s"') 5.92a 3.75b 2.47c 6.60a 3.35b 1.15c 5.90a 3.89b 2.36c 0 att LR 4.60a 3.75a 2.53b 2.80a 2.20a 1.05b 2.40a 2.08a 1.63b Nac TL 10.58a 7.38b 5.03c 9.28a 6.01b 2.10c 8.30a 5.90b 4.30c 59 RL/HL 0.91 0.95 1.05 0.48 0.85 0.76 0.52 0.55 0.68 WH 0.345a 0.302b 0.116c 0.787a 0.375b 0.153c 0.435a 0.232b 0.132c 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Wupt-% WR 0.117a 0.082b 0.045c 0.111a 0.062b R -Wupt 0.035c 0.075a 0.055b 0.037c Fig.2. Effect of salinity on water uptake (Wupt-%) and dark respiration of seedlings [R-dark respiration (umolCO, g' s)]. WR/WH 0.232 0.271 TABLE 1. 0.281 0.141 0.165 0.228 0.172 0.237 0.280 Yisleidy Frios-Coronado ANALYSIS TEMPLATE-Fill one in for each figure or table Figure or Table Number (indicate which Figure or Table): 1) "Official" title for this figure or table (from the caption): 2) My (simplified, decoded, in regular language) title for this figure or table: 3) The specific hypothesis being tested, or specific question being asked in the experiment represented in this Figure or Table is: Next, refer to your cartoon of what the experimenters did, and to your annotated figure, and to the information you wrote in above. Then, answer the following for each figure or table: A. For each Figure determine the following: - Is there a control? If so, how is it defined or set up? If not, what is being compared? - What is the variable that is being measured? - How does that variable change? -What is the response that is being measured? -How does the variable affect the responses? - What does this figure tell you? B. For each Table determine the following: - What information is being presented? - What does this Table tell you? 4) What are you main conclusions based on the results? For each conclusion, refer to each figure and table to that you use to form that conclusion (you may combine several figures and tables to make one conclusion). 5) The following issues are ones concern to me: (these can be things you don't understand, or criticisms of the method, questions for the authors, or anything else that comes to mind)