Response of Cowpea Plants Grown Under Salinity Stress to PK-Foliar Applications

Screening selected genotypes of cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] for salt tolerance during seedling growth stage

The environmental stress such as, salinity (soil or water) are serious obstacles for field crops especially in the arid and semi-arid parts of the world. This study was conducted to assess the potential for salt tolerance of cowpea genotypes during the seedling stage. The experimental treatments were 9 cowpea genotypes and 4 NaCl concentrations (0, 50, 100 and 200 mM) and they were tested in greenhouse. The experimental design was completely randomized design in factorial combination with three replications. Data analysis was carried out using SAS (version 9.1) statistical software. Seedling shoots and root traits, seedling shoots and root weight, number of leaves and total biological yield were evaluated. The analyzed data revealed highly significant (p < 0.001) variation among cowpea genotypes, treatments and their interactions. It is found that salt stress significantly decreased root length, shoot length, seedling shoot and root weight of cowpea genotypes. The extent of decrease varied with genotypes and salt concentrations. Most genotypes were highly susceptible to 200 mM NaCl concentration. The correlation analysis revealed positive and significant association among most of the parameters. Genotypes 210856, 211557 and Asebot were better salt tolerant. The study revealed the presence of broad intra specific genetic variation in cowpea varieties for salt stress with respect to their early biomass production.

Kinetin applications alleviate salt stress and improve the antioxidant composition of leaf extracts in Salvia officinalis

A pot experiment was carried out under glasshouse conditions with common sage (Salvia officinalis L.) to investigate the interactive effects of salt stress and kinetin on growth attributes and the abundance of pigments, ions, phenolic diterpenes and α-tocopherol in leaf extracts of this species. The plants were subjected to the following four treatments: (i) control (nutrient solution), (ii) control + 10 μM kinetin, (iii) salt stress (nutrient solution + 100 mM NaCl), and (iv) salt stress + 10 μM kinetin. Kinetin was applied as a foliar fertilizer. Salt stress reduced water contents, photosynthetic activity and pigment contents of sage leaves. In addition, it increased Na(+) contents, and reduced those of Ca(2+) and K(+) in leaves. Salt stress reduced carnosic acid and 12-O-methyl carnosic acid contents in leaves, while it did not affect carnosol and α-tocopherol contents. Foliar applications of kinetin seemed to counterbalance or alleviate the stress symptoms induced by salinity, improving ion and pigment contents, while leaf phenolic diterpene (mainly carnosol) and α-tocopherol contents also increased in both control and NaCl-treated plants; still this effect was much more obvious in salt-treated plants. A similar effect was also obtained when plants were sprayed with KNO(3) or Ca(NO(3))(2), thus suggesting that kinetin effects were at least partly due to an improvement of ion homeostasis. Kinetin applications resulted in increased transcript levels of the isoprenoid and tocopherol biosynthetic genes, DXPRI and VTE2 and VTE4 in control plants, but not in NaCl-treated plants. We conclude that kinetin can alleviate the negative impact of salt on sage plants cultivated under arid environments with salinity problems.