Salt priming improved salt tolerance in sweet sorghum by enhancing osmotic resistance and reducing root Na+ uptake

Abstract

This study attempted to explore how salt priming affected salt tolerance in sweet sorghum with emphasis on root Na+ uptake. After 10 days of pretreatment with 150 mM NaCl, plants were stressed with 300 mM NaCl. After salt stress for 7 days, dry matter of root and shoot decreased by 58.7 and 69.7 % in non-pretreated plants and by 37.9 and 41.3 % in pretreated plants. Consistently, pretreated plants maintained higher photosynthetic rate during salt stress, suggesting the enhanced tolerance by salt priming. Salt priming enhanced osmotic resistance, as proline and relative water contents in the leaf were higher in pretreated plants under salt stress. Salt priming alleviated salt-induced oxidative damage not by improving antioxidant protection due to lower increase in leaf malondialdehyde content and no extra induction on ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, superoxide dismutase, ascorbic acid and reduced glutathione in pretreated plants. After 7 days of salt stress, root Na+ efflux increased by 8.5- and 3.9-folds in pretreated and non-pretreated plants, suggesting that salt priming reduced root Na+ uptake, and then root and leaf Na+ accumulation were mitigated in pretreated plants. However, root Na+ extrusion became indifferent between pretreated and non-pretreated plants under salt stress after inhibiting plasma membrane (PM) Na+/H+ antiporter. Thus, the greater Na+ extrusion induced by salt priming had relation to PM Na+/H+ antiporter. Overall, salt priming improved salt tolerance in sweet sorghum by enhancing osmotic resistance and reducing root Na+ uptake.