EFFECT OF DIFFERENT CONCENTRATIONS OF SODIUM CHLORIDE AND ZINC ON SOME MORPHOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS OF WHEAT PLANT Triticum aestivum L.

Abstract

An experiment was carried out in plastic pots of 4 Kg soil capacity in Al-Anbar university – College of Science – Department of Biology during Winter season of 2010 - 2011, to study the effect of different concentration of sodium chloride (0, 75, 150 )mM and zinc (0, 9, 18 ) ppm as sulfate (or chloride) on some morphological and physiological characteristic of wheat plant var Ipa 99. Factorial experiment implemented according to completely randomized Design with three replicates. The experiment results showed that the treatment of grains with different concentration of sodium chloride caused a decrease of all studied morphological characteristics (plant height, leaf area, no. of leaves/ plant, fresh and dry weight of shoot and root system of plant). The results of effect of sodium chloride on physiological characteristic showed a significant increase in carbohydrate content of the leaves with increasing of salt concentration, while the treatment of 75 mM gave non significant increase of chlorophyll content and significant decrease of chlorophyll content with 150 mM of sodium chloride compared with control.The treatment of the grains with 9 ppm of zinc caused significant increase of plant height and significant decrease with 18 ppm of zinc treatment compared with the control, also leaf area decrease significantly when zinc concentration increased, while 18 ppm gave highest average of plant leaves numbers 7.840 leaf/ plant compared with control that gave 7.587 leaf/plant. 9 ppm zinc concentration gave non significant increase of fresh and dry weight of shoot and root system with average of 9.365, 2.979, 15.77 and 2.13 gm/ plant respectively compared with control treatment. 18 ppm zinc concentration caused non significant decrease of fresh and dry weight average. 9 ppm zinc concentration gave non significant decrease of total chlorophyll content with the average of 2.499 mg/gm compared with control which gave 2.819 mg/gm, while 18 ppm caused significant increase in chlorophyll content. There is non significant decrease of carbohydrate content with increasing of zinc concentration.The effect of interference between sodium chloride and zinc showed significant increase of physiological and morphological characteristics in treatment of 75 mM NaCl and 9 ppm zinc except leaf area which decreased significantly.The conclusion of this study reveal that the soaking of wheat grains in zinc solution reduce the negative effect of sodium chloride on some morphological and physiological characteristis