Abstract
The present study was carried out to assess the underlying physiological and biochemical events of salinity adaptation in blessed thistle (Silybum marianum Gaertn.) and peppermint (Mentha haplocalyx Briq.).
The seedlings of both species were exposed to four different salt (NaCl) concentrations: 30 mM (3.8 mS cm–1), 60 mM (7 mS cm–1), 120 mM (13.4 mS cm–1), and 180 mM (19.6 mS cm–1), and the changes in biomass, osmoprotectant accumulation, ion concentrations, and antioxidant enzymes activity were recorded every 15 days in blessed thistle and every 10 days in peppermint for three samplings.
The results showed that salinity significantly increased malondialdehyde (MDA) and proline accumulation in leaves and roots (3- to fourfold) but had little effect on the chlorophyll content of leaves at the first sampling in both species. The soluble protein content of blessed thistle significantly increased after salt treatment at the first sampling (83% in roots and 55% in the aerial parts of plants), whereas peppermint was less affected. K+/Na+ and Ca2+/Na+ ratios in both species exposed to 180 mM NaCl were more than tenfold lower than the untreated control at all three samplings. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activity were significantly affected by salinity in blessed thistle but not in peppermint, while peroxidase (POD) activity increased with increasing salinity in peppermint but not in blessed thistle at all three samplings.
These results suggested blessed thistle and peppermint utilized different tolerance strategies which shedding new light on how to grow halophytes in saline lands.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the editors for their valuable comments on our manuscript. We also thank Kathleen Farquharson’s group at Plant Editors for their valuable comments about the manuscript text.
Funding
This research was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFD0900704 and 2019YFD0900702), Six Talent Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province (SWYY–058), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD program, 809001), and the International Workshop on the Nexus of Food-Energy-Water (FEWS) Systems: US-China (20191J006).
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Zhou, M., Wei, Y., Wang, J. et al. Salinity-Induced Alterations in Physiological and Biochemical Processes of Blessed Thistle and Peppermint. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 21, 2857–2870 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-021-00572-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-021-00572-3