Dormancy Breaking and Salt Tolerance in Wild Soybean: A Comparative Analysis of Genotypic Responses to Acid Scarification and Salinity

Background: Physical seed dormancy complicates wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. and Zucc.) evaluation under salinity. Combined effects of scarification duration, NaCl concentration and genotype on germination and early seedling performance were assessed. Methods: Three accessions were tested in a three-factor completely randomized design with sulfuric acid (H2SO4) scarification (0, 5, 10 min), five NaCl concentrations (0-100 mM) and four replicates per combination. Germination, growth and biomass traits were assessed using factorial ANOVA, correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). Result: Scarification increased germination from 17.1% (0 min) to 61.3% (5 min) and 59.3% (10 min), without a significant difference between durations. Mean germination time fell from 7.5 to 4.5 and 4.2 days. Salinity did not significantly affect final germination percentage but delayed germination and reduced vigor, seedling elongation and biomass. Genotype 2 showed higher germination index, germination coefficient and vigor index, whereas Genotypes 1 and 3 accumulated more root and shoot dry matter. Genotype 3 germination declined significantly between 5- and 10-min. Correlation and PCA revealed overlapping germination indices and additional biomass-related variation, supporting multi-trait assessment of early-stage salinity responses.