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MORPHOBIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF SALINITY STRESS RESPONSE OF WHEAT

Shamaila Rafiq, Tahira Iqbal, AMJAD Hameed, Zulfiqar Ali Rafiqi and Naila Rafiq

Abstract: The experiments were planned to investigate the effect of salt stress on morphobiochemical response of wheat cv. Uqab-2000. Seeds were given different priming treatments like hydro priming, chilling, kinetin, CaCl₂.2H₂O and controlled (with no treatment). After priming treatments the seedlings were grown under normal and salt stress (NaCl 125 mM) for 8-days in petridishes at 25 ±1°C in an incubator. Various morphological parameters for seedlings and biochemical parameters (catalase activity and ascorbic acid contents) for roots were determined. The results revealed that generally all treatments except hydropriming increased the morphological growth of the seedlings, particularly chilling, kinetin, and calcium chloride showed a significant difference compared to control. An overall   increasing trend in the catalase activity (units/ mg fresh weight) was observed except kinetin treatment in normal and chilling in saline conditions. The profound increase in activity of catalase was observed after chilling and hydro priming in normal and saline, respectively. However, all seed priming treatments decreased the ascorbic acid concentration under salinity, while reverse was true for normal conditions. Application of salt stress have overall substantial negative affect on all the visual growth and biochemical parameters, However seed priming treatments tend to alleviate the adverse effects of salinity.

Department of Chemistry (Biochemistry) University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan
Corresponding Author: Shamaila Rafiq; s_rafiq2005@yahoo.com