Brassica occupy third place among the various oilseed species but their productivity, growth and oil production are greatly reduced due to salinity. Amphidiploid Brassica species includes B. napus (AC genome), B. juncea (AB genome) and B. carinata (BC genome) are more tolerant to salinity as they are derived from diploid species which include B. campestris (AA, n=10), B. nigra (BB, n=8) and B. oleracea (CC, n=9). Screening of available local cultivars may facilitate us in identification of varieties suitable for that particular area. Therefore, in the present study different parameters such as growth, electrolyte leakage, K+ /Na+ ratio, chlorophyll, protein, malondialdehyde and proline content were used to study the effects of 200 mM NaCl for 24 h on the seedlings of available local three amphiploid Brassica species i.e., B. juncea L. cv Pusa Bold, B. carinata cv Pusa Gaurav (DLSC 1) and B. napus var Neelam (HPN-3). Correlation amongst the different parameters tested for screening salinity tolerant was also studied. In the present investigation, growth, chlorophyll and protein content of the seedlings decreased sharply in all the species upon salinity treatment. Electrolyte leakage analysis indicated that membrane damage of B. juncea seedlings was least whereas endogenous K+/Na+ ratio was found to be higher. Strong positive correlation between the electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde content analysis has been obtained (r=0.9). The response of all the three amphiploid Brassica species under salinity condition differed significantly (p  0.01). Amongst the three amphiploid species B. juncea L. cv Pusa Bold was found to be more tolerant.

Keywords: Abiotic Stress; Brassica; Electrolyte Leakage; Lipid Peroxidation; Proline