Abstract
Flax is one of the oldest utilitarian plants that have been grown for fibre as well as an oilseed crop. The species has been recognized as an excellent source of micronutrients, dietary fibre, protein, vitamin B1, lignan, and essential fatty acids (EFA), namely linoleic and α-linolenic acids. However, in spite of immense nutritional and industrial importance of the crop no work has been carried out on the effect of salinity induced by different salts on seed yield and quality traits in Linum usitatissimum. A high yielding germplasm line ‘Mukta’ was subjected to five concentrations (0 mM, 50 mM, 100 mM, 150 mM and 200 mM) of three salts viz. sodium chloride (NaCl), potassium chloride (KCl) and calcium chloride (CaCl2) for two seasons. Data were collected for seed yield along with different quality traits and a range of antioxidant enzymes. Seed yield decreased with rise in salt concentration and was minimum at 200 mM for all the salts. Chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoid content continuously decreased with increase in salt concentration for all the salt treatments. Catalase and GST content increased with increase in salt concentration and was maximum at 200 mM.
Highlights
Environmental conditions are known to exert a strong influence on plant growth and productivity (Feller and Vaseva, 2014; Pandolfi et al, 2017)
This study reports for the first time the effects of different salts on seed yield and quality traits, as well as antioxidant enzyme systems in the species
The glutathione S-transferase (GST) content increased with increase in salt concentration and was maximum at 200 mM (Table 4)
Summary
Environmental conditions are known to exert a strong influence on plant growth and productivity (Feller and Vaseva, 2014; Pandolfi et al, 2017). A number of abiotic factors like salinity, drought and extreme temperatures play a major role in significantly reducing yield along with an adverse impact on several growth parameters (Tardieu, 2013; Bose et al, 2014). Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses, which has significant impact on plant productivity and quality (Bhargava et al, 2003; Shahbaz and Ashraf, 2013). Soil salinity has significantly increased in recent years due to several factors like excessive irrigation, low precipitation, high surface evaporation, rock weathering, ion exchange and poor cultural practices Received in revised form: 02 Jun 2020.
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