The current study is to investigate the effects of salinity on cellular chemical composition in four cultivars of onion seedlings (Agrifound rose, Bellary, Prema-178 and Nasik red) at different time intervals through the Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Onion seedlings were treated with 0, 50 and 150 mM NaCl for 3 h and 48 h intervals and dried samples were used for analysing the biochemical changes using FTIR spectroscopy. The results provided insights at 50 and 150 mM NaCl and clear differences were noticed in profiles related to lipids, proteins and carbohydrate functional groups compared with untreated control. In principal component analysis (PCA), the first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) of four onion cultivars and salt treatments explained 95.7 % of total variations whereas 71.8 % of total variations were accounted with FTIR spectra of 4000-1000 cm-1 region. Multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis exhibited significant correlation values of R2 > 0.9. At both the intervals of salt treatment, the Bellary cultivar showed good responses, thereafter Prema-178 cultivar at each concentration when compared with control. In conclusion, FTIR spectroscopy can elucidate early salt stress-induced chemical changes in various compounds as well as the salt adaptive process in onion metabolism.
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