Abstract
Salinity is challenging threats to the agricultural system and leading cause of crop loss. Salicylic acid (SA) is an important endogenous signal molecule, which by regulating growth and physiological processes improves the plant ability to tolerate salt stress. Considering the prime importance of Gladiolus grandiflorus (L.) in the world’s cut-flower market, the research work was undertaken to elucidate salinity tolerance in G. grandiflorus by exogenous application of SA irrigated with saline water. Results revealed that increasing salinity (EC: 2, 4 and 6 dS m–1) considerably altered morpho-growth indices (corm morphology and plant biomass) in plants through increasing key antioxidants including proline content and enzymes activity (superoxide dismutase, catalase and peroxidase), while negatively affected the total phenolic along with activity of defense-related enzymes (phenylalanine ammonia lyase, and polyphenol oxidase activity). SA application (50–200 ppm) in non-saline control or saline conditions improved morpho-physiological traits in concentration-dependent manners. In saline conditions, SA minimized salt-stress by enhancing chlorophyll content, accumulating organic osmolytes (glycine betaine and proline content), total phenolic, and boosting activity of antioxidant and defense-related enzymes. Principle component analysis based on all 16 morphological and physiological variables generated useful information regarding the classification of salt tolerant treatment according to their response to SA. These results suggest SA (100 or 150 ppm) could be used as an effective, economic, easily available and safe phenolic agent against salinity stress in G. grandiflorus.
Highlights
Increasing salinization of water resources and agricultural lands has become the global dilemma of the twentyfirst century, which endangers the potential use of soils for crop cultivation
The objective of the proposed study was to check the growth, morphology along with key physio-chemical parameters of G. grandiflorus irrigated with saline water (2, 4 and 6 dS m−1) and foliar sprayed by Salicylic acid (SA) (50, 100, 150 and 200 ppm) doses
Li et al.[17] and Ma et al.[18] reported a neutralizing effect of foliar application of SA under salinity, whereas high biomass production after SA application could be attributed to variation in allocation of biomass to different organs, which may be crucial to the success of a seedling to adapt to a new e nvironment[19]
Summary
Increasing salinization of water resources and agricultural lands has become the global dilemma of the twentyfirst century, which endangers the potential use of soils for crop cultivation. The global flower industry is currently an important sector in the world’s economy and Gladiolus is one of the high valued commercial cut flower crop even for small farmers in Pakistan. Cultivation of the Gladiolus crops would be an important intervention in wasteland areas of Pakistan, where the farmers can earn much more by exploiting available land more efficiently. Ahmed et al.[12] reported that exogenously applied SA (50 and 100 mM) helped Vicia faba in regulating the signaling events under NaCl stress through enhancing uptake of nutrients and other physiological characteristics (proline, glycine betaine and activities of antioxidant enzymes), while positively affected growth, biomass yield and pigment system. Cultivation of Gladiolus in a saline condition and application of SA would play an important role in inducing salt tolerance in plants. The objective of the proposed study was to check the growth, morphology along with key physio-chemical parameters of G. grandiflorus irrigated with saline water (2, 4 and 6 dS m−1) and foliar sprayed by SA (50, 100, 150 and 200 ppm) doses
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