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Pak. J. Bot., 47(6): 2435-2442, 2015.

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ROLE OF ENZYMATIC AND NON ENZYMATIC ANTIOXIDANT IN AMELIORATING SALINITY INDUCED DAMAGE IN NOSTOC MUSCORUM

ALWATHNANI HEND A¹., HASHEM ABEER^1,2,3 AND ABD_ALLAH E. F.^4*

¹Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box. 2460 Riyadh 11451, Saudi. Arabia

²Mycology and Plant Disease Survey Department, Plant Pathology Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Giza, Egypt

³Curret address: Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box. 2460 Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

⁴Department of Plant Production, Faculty of Food & Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box. 2460 Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

*Corresponding author e-mail: eabdallah@ksu.edu.sa

Abstract: Presence of high salt concentration in the growth medium adversely affected the plant growth and productivity by altering its metabolic activities. Experiments were conducted on cyanobacteriaum Nostoc muscorum grown in nitrogen free medium supplemented with 250 mM NaCl to evaluate the salt stress induced changes in growth, antioxidants and lipid composition. Salt stress significantly reduced the growth and physio-biochemical attributes. Salt stress increased malonaldehyde content thereby causing alterations in the lipid fraction. Significant reduction in polyunsaturated fatty acids including phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylinositol (PI) and phosphatidylserine (PS) was observed. Where as diacylglycerol, sterol ester and non-esterified fatty acids were increased. Activities of antioxidant enzymes and contents of non-enzymatic antioxidants including glutathione enhanced due to salt stress. An increase in accumulation of proline was also observed. Hence increased activity of antioxidants and altered fatty acid composition was observed in salt stressed Nostoc muscorum.

Key words: Nostoc muscorum, Antioxidants, Proline, Lipids, MDA, Salt stress.