Abstract
Salt stress adversely affects the growth and productivity of crops. However, reports suggest that the application of various micronutrients could help the plant to cope with this stress. Hence, the objective of the study was to examine the effect of exogenous application of Zinc (Zn) on salt tolerance in Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek (mungbean). Mungbean is considered to be an economically important crop and possess a strategic position in Southeast Asian countries for sustainable crop production. It is rich in quality proteins, minerals and vitamins. Three weeks old grown seedlings were subjected to NaCl (150 mM and 200 mM) alone or with Zn (250 µM). After 21 days of treatment, plants were harvested for investigating morphological, physiological and biochemical changes. We found that the Zn application mitigates the negative effect upon plant growth to a variable extent. This may be attributed to the increased shoot and root length, improved chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, enhanced total soluble sugar (TSS), total soluble protein (TSP) and proline accumulation, decreased H2O2 content and increased enzymatic antioxidant activities. Zn’s application improved the performance of the enzymes such as phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and tyrosine ammonia-lyase (TAL) of the secondary metabolism, which resulted in the improvement of total phenol and flavonoids. The antioxidant activities such as 1,1diphenyl 2-picryl hydrazine (DPPH) and ferrous reducing antioxidant power assay (FRAP) of the plants also showed improved results in their salt only treatments. Furthermore, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide radical (SOD) scavenging activity were also improved upon the application of 250 µM zinc. Thus, Zn application in low doses offers promising potential for recovering plants suffering from salinity stress. In conclusion, we assume that zinc application improved salt tolerance in mungbean through the improvement of various physiological and photochemical processes which could prove to be useful in nutrient mediated management for crop improvement.
Highlights
Amongst abiotic stresses salt is one of the main cause for restraining the growth in crops [1]
For calculating relative water content (RWC), the ten plants were weighed for fresh weight, and these plants were placed in ddH2O for 24 h at 4 ◦C and weighed for turgid/swelled weight (SW) and these plants were allowed to dry for 72 h at 70 ◦C and again weighed for the dry weight (DW)
The present work illustrates the considerable distinction in cellular activity between the salt-treated and salt aided with zinc in mungbean
Summary
Amongst abiotic stresses salt is one of the main cause for restraining the growth in crops [1]. The salinization of soil represents a major hurdle in agricultural expansion to increase crop production [2]. Increasing distribution of soil salinity causes great economic loss by a detrimental reduction in yield, posing a challenge for future food production. 71% of the earth’s area is salinized, 80% of which is due to natural processes and 20% is the result of anthropogenic activities [3]. The regions where soils are mainly affected by salt belong to arid and semi-arid, it is not restricted to these regions only as it has been recorded in a wide range of altitudes with different climatic conditions. The most prevalent soluble salt is NaCl followed by Na2SO4, CaSO4 and KCl [4]
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