Impact of Salt Stress on Some Physiological and Biochemical Attributes of Wheat

Abstract

Salinity is one of the most important ecological constraints for cereal crops including wheat. The present study was conducted to investigate the salinitytolerance potential among synthetically developed salt-resistant wheat lines compared with three commercial wheat varieties. After screening the selected wheat germplasm at varying saline conditions (0 mM, 50 mM, 100 mM, 150 mM and 200 mM); seed germination rate, lengths of roots and shoots and fresh and dry weights of roots and shoots were investigated followed by biochemical evaluation including photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyl a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids), ionic (Na+, K+, Ca+) contents, antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), total soluble proteins (TSP) and total soluble sugars (TSS). A similar pattern was observed in both physiological and biochemical parameters; all the parameters tend to decrease with increasing salinity concentration except germination rate, sodium ions, SOD, POD, CAT, TSP and TSS which increased with increasing salt concentration. Our results revealed that synthetic lines; SH-Salt-01, SH-Salt-02, SH-Salt-03, SH-Salt-04, SH-Salt-06, SH-Salt-07, SH-Salt-08, SH-Salt-09, SH-Salt-12 and SH-Salt-13 have significant tolerance to varying levels of salt (Sodium Chloride; NaCl) as compared to commonly grown wheat cultivars (Zarghoon-79, Kharchia and S-24). Two synthetic lines; SH-Salt-02 and SH-Salt-04 have performed best under the given set of stress conditions. It has also been observed that wheat seedlings performed better at 50 mM concentration of NaCl as compared to control (0 mM NaCl) and other levels of salt (100 mM, 150 mM, 200 mM).