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Alleviation of Salt Stress in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) by Exogenous Abscisic Acid Supply

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Abstract

In this work the effect of abscisic acid (ABA) and 100 mM NaCl on common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris var. Coco) growth, nitrogenase activity, and nodule metabolism was studied. Experiments were carried out in a controlled environmental chamber and plants, at the vegetative growth stage (16 days old), were treated with ABA (1 μM and 10 μM) and 48 h later were exposed to saline treatment. Results revealed that plant dry weight, nodule dry weight, nitrogen fixation (acetylene reduction activity and ureides content), and most enzymes of ammonium and ureides metabolism were affected by both ABA and NaCl. The addition of 1 μM ABA to the nutrient solution before the exposure to salt stress reduced the negative effect of NaCl. Based on our results, we suggest that ABA application improves the response of Phaseolus vulgaris symbiosis under saline stress conditions, including the nitrogen fixation process and enzymes of ammonium assimilation and purine catabolism.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. José A. Herrera-Cervera for critically reviewing the manuscript as well as to Dr. Mariam Sahrawy for her support in the ABA determination. We also thank anonymous reviewers for making valuable suggestions to earlier drafts of this study. Financial support was obtained through the Andalusian Research Program (AGR-139) and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture grant BOS2002-04182-C02-02.

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  1. Departamento de Fisiología Vegetal, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Campus de Fuentenueva s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Mariam Khadri, Noel A. Tejera & Carmen Lluch

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  1. Mariam Khadri
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  2. Noel A. Tejera
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  3. Carmen Lluch
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Correspondence to Carmen Lluch.

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Khadri, M., Tejera, N.A. & Lluch, C. Alleviation of Salt Stress in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) by Exogenous Abscisic Acid Supply. J Plant Growth Regul 25, 110–119 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-005-0004-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-005-0004-3

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