1Department of Biotechnology, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari-396 450, Gujarat, India.
2Department of Biochemistry, Anand Agricultural University, Anand - 388 110, Gujarat, India.
3Crop Improvement Division, Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur, India.
The biochemical changes in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings induced by NaCl stress were studied in relation to amelioration of salt stress by seed soaking treatments. Four treatments of seed soaking i.e. distilled water (DW), salicylic acid (SA-1mM), sodium thiosulphate (ST-1mM) and thiourea (TU-5mM) and three levels of NaCl viz; 1.2, 5 and 10 ds/m were applied after 15 days of germination. Control plants received natural soil EC salt (1.2 dS/m).High salt level (10 dS/m) caused rapid reduction in plant growth. Seed soaking treatments showed a significant recovery in plant growth rate as well as decreased the salt induced lipid peroxidation and free amino acid content. Salt induced leaf superoxide dismutase and catalase decreased by seed soaking treatment, whereas both guaiacol peroxidase and ascorbate peroxidase activity significantly increased. This concluded that seed soaking treatments effectively altered the salt induced biochemical changes in wheat plants and recovered at moderate level (5 dS/m) of salt.
Antioxidant enzymes, salicylic acid, sodium thiosulphate, thiourea, salt stress
