Biotechnological
Communication
Biosci. Biotech. Res. Comm. 10(3): 481-489 (2017)
Ameliorative effect of salicylic acid in salinity
stressed
Pisum sativum
by improving growth
parameters, activating photosynthesis and
enhancing antioxidant defense system
Farhan Ahmad
1
, Ananya Singh
2
and Aisha Kamal
1
*
1
Department of Bioengineering, Integral University, Lucknow, India
2
Department of Biosciences, Integral University, Lucknow-226026, India
ABSTRACT
Salt stress unfavorably disturbs the physiological processes and morphological organization of plants that limit plant
growth and development. Salicylic acid (SA) is an important signal molecule, also acts as growth regulator that
alleviates the hostile impact of salinity on plants. Pisum sativum L. (Fabaceae) is a salt-sensitive plant. This study
was conducted to to explore the regulating mechanism of exogenous SA on the germination,growth, relative water
content, chlorophyll content, ROS concentrations, and antioxidant activities of Pisum sativum sample under 50, 100
and 150 mM NaCl conditions. Pisum sativum showed reduced growth rate, dry weight, decreased photosynthetic
Pigments, alteration in nutritional contents under 50 and 100 mM NaCl level of salinity. Severity of adverse effect
was maximum at 150 mM of NaCl. However, presoaking application of SA ef ciently retains the growth parameters,
photosynthetic ef ciency, and improved antioxidant defense system. However, at higher salinity levels i.e. at 150 mM
NaCl saline condition, there was no noteworthy variance in the mitigation in terms of growth and other physiological
responses were observed. We demonstrate that application of SA can meritoriously neutralize the adverse effect of
moderate saline conditions on growth and development of Pisum sativum.
KEY WORDS: SALICYLIC ACID, SALT STRESS, ROS, ANTIOXIDANTS, PHOTOSYNTHESIS
481
ARTICLE INFORMATION:
*Corresponding Author: aisha@iul.ac.in
Received 27
th
Nov, 2017
Accepted after revision 26
th
Sep, 2017
BBRC Print ISSN: 0974-6455
Online ISSN: 2321-4007 CODEN: USA BBRCBA
Thomson Reuters ISI ESC and Crossref Indexed Journal
NAAS Journal Score 2017: 4.31 Cosmos IF: 4.006
© A Society of Science and Nature Publication, 2017. All rights
reserved.
Online Contents Available at: http//www.bbrc.in/
DOI: 10.21786/bbrc/10.3/22
Farhan, Ananya and Aisha
INTRODUCTION
Being sessile in nature and increased anthropogenic
activities in the advanced era, plant exposed to innu-
merable abiotic stresses, such as heat cold stress, salin-
ity, heavy metals, ultraviolet radiation, nutrient changes
(Khan and Khan, 2013). Under natural conditions, salin-
ity has a multiple effect on plant growth by reducing
water absorption, creating ion imbalance or turbulence
that leads to plant toxicity (Roussos etal., 2007). This
negatively affects growth parameter viz germination
ef ciency, leaf area, length and root and shoot dry
weight, protein synthesis, photosynthesis and chloro-
phyll, lipid breakdown, reactive oxygen species forma-
tion (Munns,2005; Parida and Das,2005). Over-produc-
tion of ROS caused and declining photosynthesis (Gunes
et.al., 2007; Steduto etal 2000). To readdress the loss due
to ROS generation, plants have an effective defense sys-
tem composed of both, enzymatic (SOD, CAT, POD) and
non-enzymatic (Proline, Phenol contents, carotenoids,
and tocopherol) and antioxidants systems. However,
plants showed different response to salinity according
to the plant tolerance capability and developmental
stage. The treatment with 150 mM NaCl level of salin-
ity enhanced about 72% of POD activity in salt-toler-
ant cotton (Gossett etal.,1994). Thus, it is important to
enhance the salinity resistance of plants and endeavor
different compound to reduce plant stress.
SA is a phenolic growth regulator that assumes con-
spicuous and expanded role in biochemical and physi-
ological reaction to abiotic stress (Hayat etal. 2012).It
has been also revealed that exogenously applications of
SA can signi cantly enhanced overall growth of plant
under both salinity and non-salinity by adjusting anti-
oxidants scavenging system (Ismail 2013). Furthermore,
SA also reduced the destructive effects of several abiotic
stresses by regulating proline concentration and other
osmolytes production (Pirasteh- Anosheh et al. 2014;
Chandrakar etal. 2016 Ma et.al, 2017).
However, con rmation regarding the lessening of
salinity stress by exogenous SA is slightly questioned.
Arfan etal. (2007) and Li etal. (2014), recounted that
spraying SA could balance direct salt stress actuated
development restraint, while no change happened at
high convergences of salt stress. Therefore, the action
of SA to suppress salt stress on concentration and plant
species needto be further clari ed. Pea (Pisum sativum
L.) second important leguminous crop belongs to family
Fabaceae, grown throughout the world in winter to early
summer, used both in human nutrition and as fodder.
The nutritional value of pea plant cannot be neglected as
it is an important source of major biomolecules protein,
carbohydrate (Hussein et al; 2006), water-soluble b-
ers, vitamins (vitamin B1), antioxidants (Mukerji 2004)
calcium, phosphorus, bers, minerals and lutein with a
small quantity of iron. It also contains iso avones which
reduced the risk of cancer. It can be grown on a different
soil texture but unfavorably in uenced by different abi-
otic burdens, for example, soil corrosiveness, aluminum
toxicity and salinity stress. Field pea is extremely sensi-
tive to salinity stress. Regrettably, insuf cient studies are
available on the growth and development of P. sativum
under salinity stress. Additionally, the defensive role of
phytohormones especially role of SA in ameliorating the
detrimental effect of salt stress on P. sativum to increase
its salt tolerance is mystical.
The aim of present study was to elucidate the allevi-
ating effect of SA in P. sativum plants under different
concentration of salt treatment by studying various mor-
phological, physiological and biochemical parameters
such as biomass yield, total protein and sugar, relative
water and proline content. The analysis of antioxidant
activities were also done to analyzed ROS generation.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
PLANT MATERIALS AND GROWTH CONDITIONS
The P. sativum L. (var. AP3) seeds were acquired from
the local seed distributor. Viable and uninfected seeds
were picked and washed at rst with 0.1% (v/v) sodium
hypochlorite solution for 2– 5 min following thorough
washing with Double Distilled water (DDW). Sterilized
seeds were pre-soaked in different treatments of salin-
ity sand salicylic acid for overnight as follows: T0 (dis-
tilled water); T1 (1 mM SA solution); T2 (50 mM NaCl
solution); T3 (50 mM NaCl with 1 mM SA); T4 (100mM
NaCl solution); T5 (100 mM NaCl with 1 mM SA); T6
(150 mM NaCl solution); and T7 (150 mM NaCl with 1
mM SA). Healthy seeds were then placed for germina-
tion in petriplates (15cm) having two layers of wet lter
paper presoaked with DDW and kept in culture rooms at
a light intensity of 100 μmol m
-2
s
-1
and a 14/10 h (day/
night) photoperiod for generation of complete plantlet.
Irrigation was done twice in a week for different treat-
ment plants with corresponding solution to keep the
eld capacity at 70–75%. The experimental condition
was maintained through-out the study period. Analyses
were carried out after 3 days, when obvious external dif-
ferences were observed between the plants subjected to
different treatments.
ANALYSIS OF GROWTH AND BIOMASS
After the completion of experiment (30 days), one
intact plantlet (roots, shoot, leaf) were indiscriminately
selected from each treatments. The plantlet height, fresh
and dry weight of roots and stems was obtained by elec-
482 AMELIORATIVE EFFECT OF SALICYLIC ACID ON SALINITY STRESSED
PISUM SATIVUM
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Farhan, Ananya and Aisha
tronic scales.Total germination percent was calculated
by using equation:
(TG) = (total number of germinated seeds/total seed) × 100.
RELATIVE WATER CONTENT
A 0.5 g of freshplant sample was weighed (fresh weight,
WF) in the wake of rehydrating for 24 h oblivious
(soaked saturated weight, WS) and after broiler drying
at 85°C for 24 h to a steady weight (WD). The RWC was
computed utilizing the equation:
RWC(%)=[(WF-WD)/(WS-WD)]
TOTAL FREE PROLINE CONTENT
Proline analysis was done by techniques portrayed by
Bates etal (1973) with a few adjustments. The absorb-
ance was measured at 520 nm utilizing toluene as a
blank. The proline concentration was estimated utilizing
proline standards (0-50 mg/mL).
Determinations of photosynthetic pigments (total
chlorophyll and total caretenoids)
The determination of chlorophyll pigments was done by
Arnon (1949) method with some modi cation. Absorb-
ance were taken by uv-visible spectrophotometer at 645
nm for chlorophyll’a’and 663 nm for chlorophyll ‘b’
using 80% acetic acid as a blank. Calculation was done
by using the following equations:
Chlorophyll a: 12.7(A663) – 2.69(A645)
Chlorophyll b: 22.9(A645) – 4.68(A663)
The Carotenoid estimation was done by Kirk and
Allen, 1965 by using equations
Carotenoids = A480 + (0.114 × A663) – (0.638 × A 645)
TOTAL PROTEIN CONTENT
Total protein content was estimated in each sample
through the method of Lowry etal, (1951). The proteins
were quanti ed using the supernatants of samples with
BSA as a standard.
Assessments of Antioxidant Activity
For enzyme extract, 0.3 g of plant sample was crushed in
a chilled mortar with 8 mL of 50 mM phosphate buffer
solution (pH 7.8) containing 1% polyethylene pyrrole
(PVP) at 4°C. The homogenate was centrifuged at 10,000
rpm for 15 min at 4°C. Supernatant were used to quantify
the activity. SOD activity was evaluated by monitoring
its capability to obstruct the photochemical reduction of
nitrobluetetrazolium salt (Giannopotitis and Ries,1977).
CAT activity was measured by degrading of H
2
O
2
(Aebi
(1984). The POD activity was estimated using guaiacol
as standard (Klapheck etal., 1990).
DATA ANALYSIS
Data were tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA)
with Graphpad Prism version 5, and graph was plot-
ted on MS tools version (10) Duncan’s multiple range
tests was used to detect differences between means. The
P-value was set at 0.05 and 0.01 for the ANOVA and
Duncan’s multiple range tests, respectively.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Salinity treatments signi cantly decreased plant growth
in terms of germination and plant height of Pisum-
sativum. On comparison with the non-salt-treated P.
sativum (T0), the salt treatment 50, 100,150 mM NaCl
signi cantly reduced the germination percentage and
plant height by 16.09, 39.08 49.4% and 42.85%, 58.92%
60.71% respectively (Fig-2A). The SA treatment abridged
the decrease in the germination and plant height of the
salt-stressed sample. It was observed that salt treatment
signi cantly decreased the germination percentage and
plant height in dose dependent manner. Moreover when
compared with SA treated plants, signi cant increase
9.58% and 26.4% in germination percentage and 53.3%,
34.2% in plant height under 50, 100 mM NaCl treat-
ment were reported. In plant sample treated with salt
concentration 150 mM (T6), plant height signi cantly
decreased by 22.3% (P<0.05). However, there was no
substantial difference in treatment with and without SA
under 150 mM NaCl (P<0.05, Fig-2B)
Salinity also showed pronounced reduction in the
dry mass of the shoots and roots. Compared with non-
salt treated P. sativum seedlings (T1), the 50, 100,150
mMNaCl salt treatment reduced the dry weight by19.04%,
38.09%, 61.09% in shoot and 26.6%, 40.1% and 66.6%
in root (Table-1). The SA mitigated the adverse effect of
salinity by improving growth of stressed plant.SA treat-
ment signi cantly increased the dry mass of the shoots,
roots, and (shoot+roots) by 15.3%,22.3% and 37.5%,
under 100 mM NaCl conditions, and 37.5%, 60% and
45% under 150 mM NaCl conditions (P<0.05). There
were no noticeable changes observed in the dry mass
of shoots and dry mass of roots between SA treatedand
non-treated plants under 0 mM NaCl (T0) and (T1) con-
dition i.e. in unstressed samples.
The RWC is an important parameter in estimating the
physiological status of plants. When compared to con-
trol (T0), the RWC decreased by 27.2% and 40% under
100 mM (T4) and 150 mM (T6) saline conditions respec-
tively with a signi cant level (P<0.05). SA treated plant
showed reduced salinity effect on the RWC reduction in
Farhan, Ananya and Aisha
FIGURE 1. Effect of SA on seed germination of Pisumsativum under salinity stress.
FIGURE 2. Effects of SA on the germination percentage (A) and
plant height (B) in Pisum sativum under salt stress (means ±
SD). Different letters indicate signi cant differences (P < 0.05);
the same letter indicates no signi cant differences between the
treatments, n = 3.
the 0 mM and 50 mM NaCl saline condition; however,
signi cance level was found (P>0.05). Under, 100 mM
NaCl level of salinity,a signi cant improvement in RWC
was recorded in plants treated with SA (P<0.05, Fig-
3A). Salinity drastically prompted the deposition of free
proline content in stressed plants. SA treatment signi -
cantly improved the proline content at all salinity levels
(0, 50, 100 and 150 mM NaCl) by 4.8%, 24.4%, 12.7%
and 11.7% respectively (P<0.05, Fig-3B).
Salt stress causeda decline in the photosynthetic pig-
ments such as chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll and
carotenoid contents on compared with control. The chl’a’
content reduced by 36.3% under the 50 mM NaCl salin-
ity level 54.5% under the 100 mM salt condition, and
72.7% under the 150 mM saline condition. Whereas SA
ameliorated detrimental effect by reducing the decrease
in chl’a’ content by 18.1%, 36.3% and 63.6% under 50,
100, 150 mM NaCl salinity respectively, when compared
to non-SA treated plant (P<0.05). More drastic reduction
in chl’b’ were found as salt concentration increased from
50, 100, 150 mM by 23.4%, 61.7%, 76.5% respectively
(P<0.05). Under salt stress conditions, the SA treatment
484 AMELIORATIVE EFFECT OF SALICYLIC ACID ON SALINITY STRESSED
PISUM SATIVUM
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Table 1. Effects of SA on the dry matter of the shoots,
roots, and roots + shoots in P sativum grown under salt
stress (means ± SD). Different letters indicate signi cant
differences (P < 0.05), the same letter indicates no
signi cant differences between the treatments, n = 3.
Treatment Shoot(g) Root(g) Shoot+
Root(g)
T0 2.1 ± 1.15
a
1.5 ± 0.68
a
3.6 ± 0.49
a
T1 2.3 ± 0.93
a
1.6 ± 0.39
a
3.9 ± 0.98
a
T2 1.7 ± 1.17
b
1.1 ± 0.37
b
2.8 ± 1.52
bc
T3 1.9 ± 1.3
ab
1.3 ± .074
ab
3.2 ± 1.62
ab
T4 1.3 ± 0.92
c
0.9 ± 0.56
c
2.2 ± 1.47
d
T5 1.5 ± 1.34
b
1.1 ± 0.45
b
2.6 ± 1.10
d
T6 0.8 ± 0.74
c
0.5 ± 0.61
c
1.3 ± 0.92
b
T7 1.1± 0.89
a
0.8 ± 0.56
b
1.9 ± 0.76
c
FIGURE 3. Effects of SA on the RWC (A) and Proline Content (B) in
Pisum sativum under salt stress (means ± SD). Different letters indi-
cate signi cant differences (P < 0.05); the same letter indicates no
signi cant differences between the treatments, n = 3.
resumed the decrease in the chl’b’ content by approxi-
mately 12.3% under the 50 mMNa Clcondition, 49.3%
under 10 mM NaCl, and by 70.3% under the 150 mM
NaClcondition. Similar responses were also observed
in carotenoid and total chlorophyll content. Reduction
percentage of carotenoid and total chlorophyll content
under 100 mM and 150 mM was recorded by 66.6, 50.1%
and 75.5, 72.2% respectively when compared to control
(T0). From the above results, it could be concluded that
SA signi cantly improved the photosynthetic ef ciency
by improving the pigment contents under different level
of salinity (Table-2).
TOTAL PROTEIN AND SUGAR CONTENT
The protein content in P. sativum signi cantly
(P<0.05) reduced in response to saline stress compared
486 AMELIORATIVE EFFECT OF SALICYLIC ACID ON SALINITY STRESSED
PISUM SATIVUM
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FIGURE 4. Effects of SA on the superoxide dismutase (A), peroxidase (B) and catalase (CAT)
(C) in Pisum sativum under salt stress (means ± SD). Different letters indicate signi cant
differences (P < 0.05); the same letter indicates no signi cant differences between the treat-
ments, n = 3.
Table 2. Effects of SA on photosynthetic pigments in P sativum grown under salt stress
(means ± SD). Different letters indicate signi cant differences (P < 0.05), the same letter
indicates no signi cant differences between the treatments, n = 3.
Treatment Chl a Content
(mg/g)
Chl b Content
(mg/g)
Car Content
(mg/g)
Total Content
(mg/g)
T0 1.1 ±0.74
b
0.81 ±0.41
a
4.2 ±0.14
b
1.8 ±0.035
b
T1 1.6 ±0.62
a
0.85 ±0.25
a
5.9 ± 0.11
a
2.4 ±0.014
a
T2 0.7 ±0.32
c
0.62 ±0.19
c
3.5 ± 0.05
c
1.2 ±0.002
c
T3 0.9 ±0.64
bc
0.71 ±0.23
bc
3.9 ± 0.15
bc
1.4 ±0.004
bc
T4 0.5 ±0.15
de
0.31 ±0.09
d
1.5 ± 0.25
d
0.9 ±0.006
d
T5 0.7 ±0.23
d
0.41 ±0.05
d
2.2 ± 0.19
d
0.7 ±0.009
d
T6 0.3 ±0.63
e
0.19 ±0.09
d
1.1 ± 0.48
d
0.5 ± 0.001
d
T7 0.4 ±0.59
de
0.24 ±0.08
d
1.4 ± 0.25
d
0.6 ±0.002
d
to their controls (T1). The content of protein decreased
by 29.1% under 50 Mm NaCl, 56.4% under 100 mM
NaCland 74.8% under 150 mM level of salinity. The
presoaking treatment of SA signi cantly improved
the protein content by 12.59%, 48.1% and 66.9% with
in 50, 100 and 150mM salinity levels respectively
(P<0.05, Table-3). Interestingly, sugar content showed
dramatic increase by 58.1%, 130.2% and 312.2% on
increasing salinity level from 50, 100 and 150 mM
NaCl. Here also SA signi cantly improved the sugar
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content (P<0.05). But, no signi cant differences were
observed between treated and non-treated plants in
non-saline condition.
Quanti cation of Antioxidant enzymes SOD, CAT, POD
activity
The antioxidant activities SOD, CAT, POD in theP. sati-
vum were pointedly affected by salt and SA treatment
(Fig-4). SOD increased by 36.3% 50.3% and 48.3% under
the 50, 100mM and 150 mM NaCl conditions, respectively
(Fig-4A). Though, CAT increased by 34.2% and 63.4%
under the 100 mM and 150 mM NaCl conditions, respec-
tively, but no signi cant difference was found between
the non-salt condition (T1) and the 50 mM NaCl condition
(T3).Further SA found to mitigate the adverse effect of
salinity by signi cantly enhancing the antioxidant activi-
ties. SOD and CAT activity increased by 25.7%, 42.6%
and 64.4%, 48.8% under respective 100 and 150 mM NaCl
salinity when compared to non SA treated plant (P<0.05,
Fig-4A and 4B). Similarly POD activity was also increased
by 18.4% under 100 mM NaCl and 38.1% under 150 mM
NaCl saline condition (Fig-4C). However, no signi cant
variation were observed in the (SOD, POD, and CAT activ-
ity between the SA and non SA treated samples in control
conditions (T1) (P>0.05).
Salt stress con nes plant development and morphol-
ogy by unfavorably affecting different parts of physiol-
ogy and natural chemistry, for example, photosynthe-
sis, superoxide ion homeostasis, antioxidant enzymes,
osmolyte aggregation, and proline metabolism regulation
(Misra and Saxena, 2009; Roussos etal., 2013). The pre-
sent investigation clearly indicated that Pisumsativum is
highly salt sensitive plant and presoaking treatment of
SA mitigated the deleterious effect of salinity by improv-
ing various morphological, physiological and biochemical
parameters such as increasing germination percentage,
plantlet height, fresh and dry weight, activation of anti-
oxidant activity and also photosynthetic process.
P. sativum under low salt stress (50 mM NaCl) exhib-
ited no ostensible inadaptability due to the saline condi-
tions. Additionally, to a certain degree, the exogenous SA
responded the salt stress-prompted growth inhibition ofP.
sativum under 100 mM salinity; however no enhance-
ment occurred under 150mM salinity. In current study,
salt stress markedly reduced the drybiomass after treat-
ment with 100 and 150mm NaCl subsequently 30 days
of treatment (Table-1). The degree of severity in root was
more as associated to shoot because root is the rst organ
that faces the salinity stress. Besides, expanding indi-
cation suggests that SA treatment fundamentally eases
the harmful impacts of saltiness on plant development
(Shakirova etal., 2003). Iqbal etal. (2006) demonstrated
that SA enhanced the inimical impacts of salt stress on
the development of wheat cultivars.It has likewise been
accounted for that SA-treated maize plants had higher
dried mass contrasted untreated plants that were addi-
tionally developed under salt stress (Gunes etal., 2007).
The variety in assignment of biomass to various organs
might be vital to the accomplishment of a seedling to
adjusting to another condition (Tang etal., 2015).
In the present investigation, increased RWC and
accumulation of free proline in P. sativum seedlings fol-
lowing 30 days of salt worry under SA treatment may
be a versatile element in enhancing its succulence and
keeping up the water adjust because of salinity actuated
osmotic stress (Fig. 2A). These results are partially simi-
lar to the other study conducted on plant showed that
proline accumulation regulate osmotic balance at the
cellular level, retain membrane integrity and therefore,
combat the injurypersuaded by salt (Misra and Saxena
2009; Ma et.al, 2017),.
The diminishment of leaf chlorophyll under high salti-
ness has been credited to the pulverization of pigments
and the unsteadiness of the pigment protein complex
(Jaleel et. al., 2009). The expansion of SA to NaCl-focused
on plants particularly enhanced the photosynthetic con-
tent, proposing that the upsurge in chlorophyllpigments
on treatment withSA may be due to capability of SA to
improve the movement of speci c proteins, consequently
animating chlorophyll biosynthesis or decreasing chlo-
rophyll debasement, prompting expanded overall photo-
synthesis process in salt stress resistance.
The decrease in chlorophyll because of osmotic
stress attributed to the major harm to chloroplast lay-
ers, which builds the membrane penetrability or loss of
membrane uprightness (Tang et. al 2015). Studies have
demonstrated that the serious harm caused by saltiness
stretch is in part because of the era of responsive oxygen
species (ROS, for example, hydrogen peroxide (Asada,
2006). The upsurge in ROS was slowed down in plants
Table 3. Effects of SA on the Total protein and
sugar content in P sativum grown under salt stress
(means ± SD). Different letters indicate signi cant
differences (P < 0.05), the same letter indicates no
signi cant differences between the treatments, n = 3.
Treatment Protein Content
(μg g
-1
FW)
Sugar Content
(mg g
-1
FW)
T0 67.56 ± 1.23
b
39.13 ± 1.05
h
T1 70.21 ± 1.06
a
47.02 ± 0.45
g
T2 47.80 ± 0.56
c
62.14 ±1.41
f
T3 59.01 ± 0.41
bc
76.08 ± 0.89
e
T4 29.40 ± 0.71
d
90.21 ±0.77
d
T5 35.60 ± 0.87
cd
120.09±1.23
c
T6 17.43 ± 1.65
e
161.41±0.89
b
T7 22.30 ± 1.67
f
185.25±0.98
a
488 AMELIORATIVE EFFECT OF SALICYLIC ACID ON SALINITY STRESSED
PISUM SATIVUM
BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
Farhan, Ananya and Aisha
when presoaked with SA, proposing that SA possibly
protect cells and sub-cellular systems from ROS cyto-
toxicity. In fact, plants can protect their tissues from the
toxic effects of salt-accumulated ROS by using enzymes
such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and
peroxidase (POD) (Verhagen et al.,2004). SA found to
persuade the activities of antioxidant enzymes in theP
sativumunder the salinity condition (Fig-3). Otherstudy
alsostrongly support that the SA enhanced antioxidants-
activity, which protect the plants from oxidative damage
(e.g., Hayat et al., 2008). In recent times, studies have
showed that SA also helps incontrolling antioxidant
enzyme activities to withstand salinity-induced injury
(Horvath etal.,2007; Harfouche etal.,2008).
CONCLUSION
From the results obtained in the present study, it could be
concluded thatP. sativum is a salt-sensitive leguminous
crop and severely affected by salt stress that’s lead to the
accumulation of ROS, debasement of photosynthetic pig-
ments which resulted in reduced photosynthesis,growth
inhibition and reduced biomass production.. However,
SA curtailed the lethal effect of salt on the growth and
adaptation of plant to saline environment, which was
accredited to high activity of the antioxidant enzymes.
However further extensive research required to elucidate
the mitigating mechanism of SA in stressed plants.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to the founder Vice Chancel-
lor Dr. SW. Akhtar, Integral University, for providing all
facilities required for study. The authors are also indebted
to the Publication Cell, Integral University, Lucknow, for
quick and crisp revision of manuscript, needful sugges-
tion and for allotting manuscript number IU/R&D/2017-
MCN000157.
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