Abstract
The strategic role of phytohormones and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to overcome various stress conditions is gaining popularity in sustainable agricultural practices. This current study aims to investigate and identify the protective roles of 28-homobrassinolide (HBL) and Glomus versiforme on two cucumber cultivars (salt sensitive Jinyou 1# and tolerant Chanchun mici (CCMC)) grown under saline conditions (100 mM NaCl). HBL and AMF were applied as individual and combined treatments on two cucumber cultivars and their effects were observed on the morphological growth and physiology under control and saline conditions. Findings revealed that the treated plants showed better performance under saline conditions through improved photosynthesis, leaf relative water content, and decreased electrolyte leakage in tolerant cultivar (CCMC) and to a lesser extent in sensitive (Jinyou 1#) cultivar. Comparable differences were noticed in the antioxidant enzymes activity such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase after every 10 days in both cultivars. Treating the plants with HBL and AMF also improved the mineral uptake regulation and lowered sodium concentration in roots compared to that in the non-treated plants. Current findings suggest that the protective role of HBL and AMF involves the regulation of antioxidants and lowers the risk of ion toxicity in the cucumber and hence enhance tolerance to salinity. These results are promising, but further studies are needed to verify the crop tolerance to stress and help in sustainable agricultural production, particularly vegetables that are prone to salinity.
Highlights
The world population is expected to exceed nine billion by the mid 21st century (Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, 2015) and food security will become a larger challenge
Our results (Table 1) showed that NaCl reduced shoot and root length (68% and 65%), fresh weight (64% and 41%), and dry weight (50% and 23%) in cultivar Jinyou 1#, while it reduced shoot and root length (77% and 65%), fresh weight (60% and 40%), and dry weight (52% and 21%) in cultivar
The combined effect of HBL and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) caused an increase in the shoot and root length, fresh and dry weight in cultivar Jinyou 1# and shoot length, fresh and root dry weight in CCMC
Summary
The world population is expected to exceed nine billion by the mid 21st century (Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, 2015) and food security will become a larger challenge. Sustainable food production is necessary to accommodate this augmentation in the population. There are several environmental obstacles (biotic and abiotic) to productivity among which, salinity is considered as the key menacing factor. The devastation of salinity has already affected about 7% of the world land [1,2,3], and it is considered as a key factor in increasing salinization. NaCl is responsible for hyper ionic and osmotic stress which causes overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Overproduction of ROS causes a decrease in photosynthesis, and damage to plant
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