Possibly, application of the glasshouse based
screening methods would be greater if genetic differences
at moderate salinity (50–100 mM NaCl) could
be found. However, this has proved difficult to do.
Table 1 lists techniques that have been used to screen
large numbers of genotypes for salinity tolerance.
Many studies have used measurements of leaf or root
elongation rate to identify genetic differences in response
to moderate salinity, but the results so far have
not been usilised in the field. Frequently, short-term
growth experiments have revealed little difference
between genotypes that differ in long-term biomass
production or yield. For example, in a comparison
between 20 cultivars of wheat, barley and triticale
there were no significant differences between the leaf
elongation rate in the first 10 days of salinisation of
any cultivar (Munns et al., 1995), including that a
of durum wheat that proved to be the most sensitive