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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Early effects of salt stress on the physiological and oxidative status of the halophyte Lobularia maritima

Anis Ben Hsouna A B , Thaura Ghneim-Herrera C , Walid Ben Romdhane A D , Amira Dabbous E , Rania Ben Saad A , Faical Brini A , Chedly Abdelly E and Karim Ben Hamed https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5781-3809 E F
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Biotechnology and Plant Improvement Laboratory, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax, University of Sfax, PO Box 1177, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia.

B Departments of Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences of Gafsa, 2112 Gafsa, Tunisia.

C Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Icesi, Calle 18 No. 122-135, Cali, Colombia.

D Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, PO Box 2460, 11451 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

E Laboratory of Extremophile Plants, Center of Biotechnology of Borj Cedria, PO Box 901, 2050 Hammam Lif, Tunisia.

F Corresponding author. Email: kbenhamed@yahoo.fr

Functional Plant Biology 47(10) 912-924 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP19303
Submitted: 21 October 2019  Accepted: 18 April 2020   Published: 2 July 2020

Abstract

Soil salinity is an abiotic stress that reduces agricultural productivity. For decades, halophytes have been studied to elucidate the physiological and biochemical processes involved in alleviating cellular ionic imbalance and conferring salt tolerance. Recently, several interesting genes with proven influence on salt tolerance were isolated from the Mediterranean halophyte Lobularia maritima (L.) Desv. A better understanding of salt response in this species is needed to exploit its potential as a source of stress-related genes. We report the characterisation of L. maritima’s response to increasing NaCl concentrations (100–400 mM) at the physiological, biochemical and molecular levels. L. maritima growth was unaffected by salinity up to 100 mM NaCl and it was able to survive at 400 mM NaCl without exhibiting visual symptoms of damage. Lobularia maritima showed a Na+ and K+ accumulation pattern typical of a salt-includer halophyte, with higher contents of Na+ in the leaves and K+ in the roots of salt-treated plants. The expression profiles of NHX1, SOS1, HKT1, KT1 and VHA-E1 in salt-treated plants matched this Na+ and K+ accumulation pattern, suggesting an important role for these transporters in the regulation of ion homeostasis in leaves and roots of L. maritima. A concomitant stimulation in phenolic biosynthesis and antioxidant enzyme activity was observed under moderate salinity, suggesting a potential link between the production of polyphenolic antioxidants and protection against salt stress in L. maritima. Our findings indicate that the halophyte L. maritima can rapidly develop physiological and antioxidant mechanisms to adapt to salt and manage oxidative stress.

Additional keywords: antioxidant enzymes, gene expression, ion homeostasis, polyphenols, short-term responses, sweet alyssum.


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