PJB-2017-112
EFFECT OF SELENIUM ON THE BIOCHEMISTRY OF ZEA MAYS UNDER SALT STRESS
HUMAIRA GUL, SYEDA KINZA, ZABTA KHAN SHINWARI AND MUHAMMAD HAMAYUN
Abstract
It is well known that salinity badly effect plant growth all over the world and greatly reduces crop production in the affected regions. Selenium functions as antioxidant in plants and in low concentration it also promotes plant growth and produce tolerance against stress. The present study was designed to check the effect of salt and selenium on the biochemistry of Zea mays like chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids, carbohydrates, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, total antioxidants, flavonoids, total phenols and proteins. Zea mays was grown in pots and maize plants were irrigated with different concentration of NaCl (0, 40 mM and 80 mM). Different concentrations of selenium (0, 5 mM, 10 mM and 15 mM) were applied foliarly after one month of germination.
An increase in salt concentration considerably decrease the chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, carbohydrates, and total proteins while flavonoids, phenols and total antioxidants showed significant increase with elevated salt concentration. Foliar application of different concentrations of selenium showed an increase in total proteins, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, phenols and flavonoids under saline as well as non-saline conditions. It is concluded from this project that salt has an inhibitory effect on the biochemistry of Zea mays as photosynthetic pigments, carbohydrates, proteins, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars showed a decline under salt stress, while total antioxidants phenols and flavonoids showed an increase under salt stress. After the application of selenium spray, the proteins, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, phenols and flavonoids showed an increase under both (saline and non-saline) conditions. It is suggested that selenium should applied at 10 mM as it showed better performance on different biochemical attributes in both saline and non-saline conditions.
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