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ISSN 2063-5346
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ASSESSMENT OF PLANT GROWTH RESPONSES AND PROLINE ACCUMULATION UNDER SALINITY STRESS IN THE SPECIES OF FAMILY MOLLUGINACEAE IN INDIAN THAR DESERT

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Devendra Singh Ranawat , Anju Mathur
» doi: 10.48047/ecb/2023.12.si5.256

Abstract

Salinity is an abiotic stress factor that limits plant growth and development. It interferes with morphological, anatomical, physiological and biochemical characters of plants. Plants develop a plethora of mechanisms in response to abiotic stress; one of them is the synthesis and accumulation of ‘compatible solutes’ or ‘osmolytes’ in the cytoplasm for osmotic balance. It is found that osmolyte and especially proline accumulation represent a reliable tolerance detecting biochemical marker under salinity stress. Present study is aimed to investigate the plant growth responses and proline accumulation under various levels of salinity in the species of family Molluginaceae present in Western Rajasthan. The seeds of Glinus lotoides Linn., Mollugo nudicaulis Lamk. and Mollugo cerviana Linn. were sown in pots and after two weeks of cotyledonal emergence, seedlings were irrigated with various salinity levels (i.e. 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200 mM of NaCl concentration respectively). All experimental set ups were set in completely randomized block design. Plant growth response was determined in terms of several parameters (i.e. plant’s fresh weight, leaf area, shoot length, root length and S/R ratio). To determine salinity induced phenotypic damage in each accession, plant salinity tolerance (PST) scores and plant survival index (PSI) was estimated. It was observed that plant growth is adversely affected by salinity stress and showed inverse relation with proline accumulation in all the accessions. Proline accumulation increases significantly with increase in salinity level and recorded maximum at highest level of NaCl, i.e. 200 mM in all three species of family Molluginaceae. Interspecific and intraspecific correlation and multivariate cluster analysis revealed that the accessions of Glinus lotoides Linn. and Mollugo nudicaulis Lamk. are comparatively tolerant to NaCl stress while the accessions of Mollugo cerviana Linn. are comparatively susceptible to NaCl stress.

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