Nitric oxide mitigates salt stress effects of pepper seedlings by altering nutrient uptake, enzyme activity and osmolyte accumulation

• Published in: Physiology and molecular biology of plants Vol. 25; no. 5; pp. 1149 - 1161
• Main Authors: Shams, Mostafakamal, Ekinci, Melek, Ors, Selda, Turan, Metin, Agar, Guleray, Kul, Raziye, Yildirim, Ertan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Springer India 01-09-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Accumulation; Antioxidants; Biological and Medical Physics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biophysics; Calcium; Carbon dioxide; Cell Biology; Conductance; Enzymatic activity; Enzyme activity; Enzymes; Hydrogen peroxide; Life Sciences; Magnesium; Malondialdehyde; Moisture content; Nitric oxide; Nutrient uptake; Nutrients; Photosynthesis; Plant growth; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Research Article; Resistance; Salinity; Salinity effects; Seedlings; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Sodium chloride; Sodium nitroprusside; Stomata; Stomatal conductance; Transpiration; Water content; Zinc; Photosynthetic rate; Mineral uptake; Pepper; Growth parameters; Nitric oxide; Salinity
• ISSN: 0971-5894; 0974-0430
• DOI: 10.1007/s12298-019-00692-2

This study was planned to evaluate the role of exogenous application of sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a NO donor, on the deleterious effect of salinity in
Capsicum annum
L. seedlings. Different NO doses (0, 50, 100 and 150 µM SNP) were foliarly applied to pepper seedlings grown under the non-saline and saline conditions (50, 100 and 150 mM of NaCl). The photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (gs), intercellular CO
2
concentration (Ci), transpiration rate (Tr), mineral element (Zn, Fe, B, K, Ca and Mg) uptake, plant growth and leaf relative water content (LRWC) were decreased by NaCl treatment, but NO treatments generally improved the observed parameters. 150 mM NaCl treatment caused overaccumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H
2
O
2
) and malondialdehyde (MDA) by 87 and 100% respectively as compared to control. However, NO application (150 µM SNP) at 150 mM of NaCl significantly decreased H
2
O
2
and MDA to 34 and 54%, respectively. The present study clarified that the exogenous NO treatment supported pepper seedlings against salinity stress by regulating the mineral nutrient uptake, antioxidant enzyme activity, osmolyte accumulation, and improving the LRWC and photosynthetic activity.