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Abstract (in English)
Salinity is one of the most important environmental stresses that limits crop yields. Given the increasing trend of saline soils, identifying salt-tolerant varieties of melons is of significant importance. Therefore, an experiment was conducted in a split-plot design within a randomized complete block design with three replications to study the effect of irrigation water salinity on some physiological traits, as well as the growth and production of Afghan and Iranian melon varieties. Twelve melon varieties, including Afghan and Iranian varieties, were considered as the first factor, while two levels of water salinity (control and 8 dS/m from pure NaCl) were the second factor.The results showed that salinity stress increased proline concentration (44.85%), total antioxidant activity (8.52%), and sodium ion concentration (22.90%) compared to the control, while chlorophyll index ratio (23.86%), relative water content (9.44%), and potassium ion concentration in leaves (24.48%) decreased. Regarding fruit characteristics, salinity increased vitamin C (47.65%) and total soluble solids (TSS) (16.10%) and decreased yield (28.28%) compared to the control. Salinity stress led to the accumulation of proline in the leaves, which was associated with genotypes. As a result, proline accumulation in plants increased salt tolerance. The highest and lowest increase in proline concentration in leaves compared to the control were observed in the Hachkeh Joahri melon variety (129.33%) and the Abbasi melon variety (8.06%), respectively.