Abstract
The effect of NaCl with or without silicon on the growth and metabolism in rice seedlings cv. MTU1010 was studied. In these seedlings, the oxidative stress has been observed with NaCl treatments and the levels of proline, H2O2 and malondialdehyde contents were increased whereas catalase activity was decreased. NaCl exposure at 25 mM, 50 mM and 100 mM concentrations in the test seedlings resulted in an increase in both reducing and non-reducing sugar content. There was a decrease in starch contents and the activity of starch phosphorylase was increased. NaCl stress also affected the activities of different carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes. The activities of sucrose synthase and sucrose phosphate synthase were increased, while the activity of acid invertase was decreased. Joint application of silicon with NaCl showed significant alterations on all parameters tested under the purview of NaCl treatment alone leading to better growth and metabolism in rice seedlings. Thus the use of silicon enriched fertilizers may help to grow healthy rice plants in NaCl rich soil.
Highlights
IntroductionSoil salinization is the enrichment of salts, mainly sodium chloride or sodium sulphate, at or near the soil surface
Soil salinity is a major problem for agriculture throughout the world
There was an average decrease of about 20% in length when seedlings were jointly treated with 50 mM and 100 mM NaCl and 2 mM silicon whereas it increased to 21% on 25 mM NaCl along with silicon treatment (Figure 1)
Summary
Soil salinization is the enrichment of salts, mainly sodium chloride or sodium sulphate, at or near the soil surface. It is one of the most widespread stress. Salt stress reduces the free energy of soil water available to plants and results in negative water potential in soils. This drop in water potential is accompanied by specific ion toxicities and deficiencies, retardation of water uptake and nutritional imbalance in plants [1]. Plants have developed a complex antioxidant system which mitigates and repairs the damage initiated by reactive oxygen species, toward enzyme synthesis to protect the cellular and subcellular systems from the cytotoxic effects of these active oxy-free radicals
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