Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting crops worldwide, and breeders are urged to evaluate new genotypes to know their degree of tolerance to this selective agent. However, obtaining a number of plants high enough to make the evaluation can prove to be a long and laborious process which could be overcome by using tissue culture techniques. In the present study, the reliability of tissue culture evaluations is called into question through two parallel experiments, in vitro and ex vitro, using Citrus macrophylla and four mutants thereof, previously selected by their different behavior to salinity, as a plant material. Plants were subjected to salinity for 8 weeks in both in vitro (80 mM NaCl) and ex vitro (100 mM NaCl) experiments, and differences with plants grown in control conditions without salt were analyzed. After the experiments, length, leaf damage, shoot dry weight, chlorophylls and ions were measured in both conditions and experiments. As a result, it was demonstrated that tissue culture is a reliable tool to determine whether a genotype is tolerant to salinity or not, since plants of the same genotype responded in a similar way to salinity in both experiments. Henceforth, in vitro evaluations can be employed to test genotypes in a very early stage and using very little time and space. However, genotypes that showed the biggest or lowest changes when cultured in salinity were not always the same in both experiments. Thus, only ex vitro experiments can be performed if the goal is to compare genotypes and see which genotype is the most or least resistant to salinity.

中文翻译：

---

体外植物评价试验：柑橘植物中盐度测定的可靠性测试

盐度是影响世界各地农作物的主要非生物胁迫之一，因此呼吁育种者评估新的基因型，以了解其对该选择剂的耐受程度。但是，获得足够高的植物以进行评估可能是一个漫长而费力的过程，可以通过使用组织培养技术来克服。在本研究中，组织培养评估的可靠性通过两个平行实验（使用柑桔）在体外和离体实验中受到质疑及其四个突变体，其先前根据它们与盐度的不同行为而被选择作为植物材料。在体外（80 mM NaCl）和离体（100 mM NaCl）实验中，均对植物进行盐度处理8周，并分析了与在无盐的对照条件下生长的植物的差异。实验后，在条件和实验中都测量了长度，叶片损伤，枝干重量，叶绿素和离子。结果证明，组织培养是确定基因型是否耐盐性的可靠工具，因为在两个实验中相同基因型的植物对盐度的反应相似。今后，可以在很短的时间内并用很少的时间和空间就可以采用体外评估来测试基因型。然而，在盐度下培养时显示最大或最小变化的基因型在两个实验中并不总是相同的。因此，只有如果目标是比较基因型并查看哪种基因型对盐分的抵抗力最大或最小，则可以进行体外实验。