Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) salt tolerance/mutualistic bacteria inoculation

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is a ubiquitous forage legume crop, responsible for the nutrition of many of the world's livestock animals. Unfortunately, alfalfa suffers from insufficient levels of salinity tolerance in many semi-arid regions around the world, including western Canada. To attempt to find ways to mitigate salinity stress in alfalfa, this study combined conventional breeding techniques with inoculation by mutualistic soil bacteria. Three alfalfa generations sequentially selected for improved salt tolerance were inoculated with either highly salt-tolerant (H. maura), moderately-tolerant (Ensifer meliloti) bacteria, or a 60 kg/ha nitrogen amendment in either non- (0 dS/m), moderate-(8 dS/m), or highly (16 dS/m) saline soil in the greenhouse. Plants were assessed for success in saline conditions through root/shoot biomass measurements, shoot height, chlorophyll content, number of stems, and root and shoot osmoprotectant concentrations (proline, glycine betaine, and trehalose). Re..., , , # Alfalfa (*Medicago sativa*) salt tolerance/mutualistic bacteria inoculation

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rfj6q57j1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rfj6q57j1)

## Description of the data and file structure

Variables:

* shoot/root biomass (g)
* height (cm)
* chlorophyll content (with 3x contributing values, unitless)
* plant counts
* Number of stems (Tillers)
* nodulation scores (1 (low)-9 (high), \"inactive\" nodules are also noted),
* spectrophotometric absorbance values (unitless) for three osmoprotectants (proline, glycine betaine, trehalose)
* quantity values (Mg)
* concentration values (mg/g plant tissue)

Lastly, there are censor identifiers for proline values, as some samples contained greater concentrations of proline than the instrumentation could determine (1=uncensored, 0=censored). Treatments included plant generation (1, 2, 3, 'Halo'=Check), 5 \"bacteria\" treatments (C=Control, CN=60kg/ha nitrogen amendment, E= *Ensifer meliloti*, H=*Halomonas maura*, ...