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PLANT GENE & TRAIT
2014, Vol. 5, No.6, 40-44
http://pgt.biopublisher.ca
Research Report
Open Access
Impact of Salt Stress (Nacl) on Seed Germination, Photosynthetic Pigments of
Green Gram Cultivars of Co6 and Co8
K. Krishna Surendar
1
, S.V.Varshini
2
, R.Deepa Sankari
2
, N.Susithra
2
, S.Kavitha
2
, M.Shankar
2
1. Assistant Professor, Vanavarayar Institute of Agriculture, VIA, Pollachi-642 103, India
2. Project Students, VIA, Pollachi-642 103
Correspondings author, surendartnau@gmail.com;
Authors
Plant Gene and Trait, 2014, Vol.5, No.6 doi: 10.5376/pgt.2014.05.0006
Copyright
© 2014 Surendar et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Investigations were undertaken to study the impact of salt stress (NaCl) in concentrations on seed germination and
seedling growth of Green gram (CO5, CO6). Seed germination percentage, seedling growth characters, physiological and
bio-chemical parameters were estimated at 10 days after sowing in Petridish. The stress was imposed during sowing time with
different concentrations viz., 10 ppm, 20 ppm, 30 ppm, 40 ppm, 50 ppm, 60 ppm, 70 ppm, 80 ppm, 90 ppm, 100 ppm. The increased
seed germination percentage was noticed in control (distilled water) treated seeds and very less reduction was observed in T
2
to T
5
treatments in the range of 11.2 percent over the T
11
. The highest reduction percent of 35% were observed in T
10
, T
11
, and T
12
treated
seeds. Growth parameters of shoot length and root length were significantly reduced due to NaCl treatments. However among the
treatments, T
1
- T
5
showed very less reduction 15 percent than the other treatments, whereas T
6
-T
11
recorded highest reduction of 27
percent over control. There was also significantly maintained in the chlorophyll ‘a’ ‘b’ and total chlorophyll content of the seedlings
in the T
1
-T
5
treatments as 12.6%, with lesser reduction over the other treatments. The highest reduction of 25.3% was noticed in
T
6
-T
12
treated seedlings.
Keywords
Salt stress; Seed germination; Shoot and root length; Photosynthetic pigments; Green gram
Introduction
Legumes are the richest protein source of human diet
and livestock in poor areas. Apart from that, they are
used as green manures and green fodder to animals.
Mainly they are used for fixing atmospheric nitrogen
to improve the physical and chemical properties of
soil. Among the legumes, Green gram and Black gram
are considered as the most important traditional crops
of India.
Salinity – an abiotic stress is an ever
increasing problem that seriously affects crop
production in various parts of the world, especially in
areas where are irrigated with water containing salts.
About 23% of the world’s cultivated lands are saline
and 37% is sodic (Khan and Duke, 2001). Salinity
affects 7% of the world’s land area of about 930
million hectares. Salinity reduces the yield of pulses
by more than 50% (Bray, 2000). Soils can be saline
due to geo-historical processes or they can be
man-made. The water and salt balance, just like in
oceans and seas determine the formation of salty soils,
where more salt comes in than goes out. Here, the
incoming water from the land brings salts that remain
because there is no outlet and the evaporation water
does not contain salts. Soil salinity in agriculture soils
refers to the presence of high concentration of soluble
salts in the soil moisture of the root zone. Salt stress
induces the synthesis of abscisic acid which closes
stomata when transported to guard cells. As a result of
stomatal closure, photosynthesis declines and photo
inhibition and oxidative stress occur. The deleterious
effect of salinity is increased osmotic pressure which
restricts the absorption of water into the seeds (Tester
and Davenport, 2003). It is also toxic to the embryo
and seedlings. Enzyme called α-amylase which is
essential for seed germination is inhibited due to salt
stress. Starch to sugar conversion occurs during
germination is also affected by salinity. It also delays
the synthesis of nucleic acids and RNAase. As regard
to the chlorophyll content of the salinized plant, it is
apparent that the chlorophyll content was reduced
with increasing salinity. When salinity has affected the
warning signs were sick or dying trees and declining
vegetation. As salinity impacts on any remaining
native vegetation and the wildlife that depends on it
PLANT GENE AND TRAIT
Preferred citation for this article:
Surendar et al., 2014, Impact of Salt Stress (Nacl) on Seed Germination, Photosynthetic Pigments of Green Gram Cultivars of Co6 and Co8, Plant Gene and
Trait, Vol.5, No.6 40-44 (doi: 10.5376/pgt.2014.05.0006)
Received: 22 Mar., 2014
|
Accepted: 30 Mar., 2014
|
Published: 13 Jun., 2014