Can exogenous application of putrescine and priming modulate salinity stress in Camelina sativa L?

Abstract

High salinity in soil significantly reduces growth and productivity; however, employing priming techniques and foliar spraying of putrescine can serve as an impressive method to reduce the impact of salt stress in saline soil. The current investigation intends to explore the effected of foliar spraying and priming methods on the growth, physiological, biochemical characteristics, and seed chemical compositions of salt-stressed Camelina sativa L. crop. A pot test was set up in a randomized complete block design by a factorial scheme with four replications. The experiment involved three factors: 1) salinity stress (0, 60, and 90 mM(, 2) priming techniques (no priming, hydro-priming, putrescine-priming (50 μmol L − 1), and 3) foliar application of putrescine at concentrations of 0, 100, and 200 μmol L−1. Camelina plants subjected to salinity stress showed decreased growth and performance, which correlated with lower chlorophyll levels, reduced photosynthesis maximum quantum efficiency, potassium concentration, and total soluble sugars and proline content. This decline was associated with increased lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde content), sodium concentration, and electrical leakage, leading to diminished antioxidant enzyme activities. In contrast, under salt stress (60 mM), priming with putrescine led to an increase in grain yield (45 %), chlorophyll content (43 %), shoot length (54 %), maximum quantum efficiency (16 %), Superoxide dismutase (49 %), Catalase (58 %), Ascorbate peroxidase (47 %), linoleic acid (20 %), linolenic acid (38 %), oleic acid (27 %), eicosanoic acid (13 %) and shoot K+ ion (50 %) compared with non-treated plants. The application of 100 μmol L−1 putrescine through foliar application elicited the efficiency of camelina plants with increasing proline content, total soluble sugars, and antioxidant enzyme activities against salinity stress. In addition, the putrescine-priming method could improve photosynthetic efficiency and antioxidant enzyme activity under salt stress levels. Overall, our results supply an important outlook for the use of foliar putrescine spraying and putrescine-priming in modulating salinity tolerance in camelina crops.