The response of drought-tolerant sugar beet to salinity stress under field and controlled environmental conditions

Thirty-four sugar beet drought-tolerant half-sib families were screened in greenhouse experiment under saline (16 dSm−1) and normal conditions, and a subset of 10 tolerant genotypes were selected for evaluating of yield-related traits, Na+, K+, and α-amino-N nitrogen contents under saline field condition (12 dSm−1). Drought-tolerant genotypes showed a different tolerance level under salt stress. Significant correlation was observed between EP2s and STIEP2 in greenhouse with root yield (RY) in saline field condition. It should be possible that a simple measurement at 16 dSm−1 in the greenhouse can be used as main part of sugar beet salt-tolerant breeding program. In total, genotypes SBSI-DR I-HSF14-P.23 (# 16) and 436B-HSF9-P.27 (# 26) were recognized as salt- and drought-tolerant genotypes with low Na+ and K+ contents in root and high white sugar content (WSC) and RY in field. A larger panel of genotypes to validate this kind of association is necessary.