Physiological adaptability of Salvadora oleoides to sodicity and salinity stress

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in microplots at ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana during 2013–16 to study the adaptive response of Salvadora oleoides, a facultative halophyte under saline, sodic and mixed saline-sodic conditions. S. oleoides was not able to survive at higher sodicity (pH ~ 10.0) and salinity (ECe ~ 35 dS/m) as well as on the mixed sodicity and salinity levels (pH ~ 9.0 along with ECe ~ 10, 15, 20 dS/m). Stress either salinity or sodicity brought reduction in plant height, chlorophyll content and gas exchange attributes, but S. oleoides maintained gaseous exchange at moderate stress level. S. oleoides accumulated 4 fold higher proline under sodic stress and 6 fold under salinity stress. Other osmolytes, TSS and soluble protein decreased with stress intensification to maintain osmotic balance. In comparison to control, sodicity enhanced Na+ and Cl- by 54.57% and 20.33%, while under salinity, Na+ was enhanced by 141.52–256.09% and Cl- by 47.83–115.58% at ECe ~ 15 and 25 dS/m, respectively. Inspite of such higher increase in Na+ and Cl-, S. oleoides retained good amount of mean K+ (1.22%) in leaf tissue. S. oleoides also maintained leaf Na+/K+ below 1.0 under stress condition of pH ~ 9.5 and ECe ~ 15 dS/m. Based on the studied physio-biochemical analysis, Salvadora oleoides exhibited good adaptive potential under moderate salinity and sodicity stress and could be used as a promising salt-tolerant plant species for plantation in salt affected areas.

Structural and Functional Strategies in Cenchrus Species to Combat Environmental Extremities Imposed by Multiple Abiotic Stresses

“…The proportion of physiological attributes like total soluble proteins, soluble sugars, glycine betaine, chlorophyll a , b , and total chlorophyll increased in drought affected population. Better accumulations of organic osmolytes and increased chlorophyll content indicate better adaptability of this species to arid environments [ 35 , 36 ]. The total proteins, total free amino acids, proline content and carotenoid significantly increased in cold habitat plants.…”

Halophytes as new model plant species for salt tolerance strategies

“…Therefore, further exploration is needed to test the contribution of salt stress-related genes or regulatory factors from highly salt-tolerant halophytes for their possible utilization in crop improvement. Although many halophytes such as Sueda ( Guo et al., 2019 ), Spartina species ( Baisakh et al., 2008 ; De Carvalho et al., 2013 ), Salicornia brachiata ( Jha et al., 2009 ), Atriplex , Dichanthium ( Mann et al., 2019a ), Sporobolus ( Mann et al., 2019b ), Urochondra ( Mann et al., 2021b ), Salvodora ( Kumari and Parida, 2018 ; Kumar et al., 2022 ), Aegilops tauschii ( Mansouri et al., 2019 ), Amaranthus , and Chenopodium species are being explored for their salt tolerance mechanisms and utilization as gene donors for enhanced salt tolerance in crop plants, still, Arabidopsis thaliana and Thellungiella halophila (salt cress) have been used as model halophytic plant species for functional validation in most salt tolerance studies. The major limitation is the non-availability of complete genomic information on these halophytes; hence, this puts constraints on using these halophytes as donors for abiotic stress studies.…”