Plant tissue culture has been used to induce and select genetic variability in order to increase the level of salinity tolerance in several species. Pineapple plants from Pérola and Smooth Cayenne varieties were micropropagated for six months in a medium with 0, 12.5 and 25 mM of NaCl and evaluated during the acclimatization phase to verify the changes induced by NaCl during in vitro cultivation and to determine the best parameter to quantify these changes. The traits evaluated for plant height, plant diameter, leaf number, length and width of the D leaf at 0, 15, 45, 75 and 105 days after the installation of the experiment. There was no effect of different levels of NaCl during the micropropagation on the traits and mean growing rates. Differences were found in the correlation coefficients between the characters and mainly, in the phenotypic variances. The results indicated that the phenotypic variances were more adequate to evaluate the impact of in vitro selection for NaCl tolerance on traits apparently not related to salinity in pineapple plants.
Ananas comosus; tissue culture; salinity
