Contrasting response mechanisms to root-zone salinity in three co-occurring Mediterranean woody evergreens: a physiological and biochemical study
Massimiliano Tattini A B F , Maria Laura Traversi A , Silvana Castelli C , Stefano Biricolti B , Lucia Guidi D and Rossano Massai EA Istituto per la Valorizzazione del Legno e delle Specie Legnose, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Madonna del Piano 10, I-50019 Sesto F.no, Firenze, Italy.
B Dipartimento di Ortoflorofrutticoltura, Università di Firenze, Viale delle Idee 30, I-50019 Sesto F.no, Firenze, Italy.
C Istituto di Biotecnologie e Biologia Agraria, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Bassini 15, I-20110 Milano, Italy.
D Dipartimento di Chimica e Biotecnologie Agrarie, Università di Pisa, Via S. Michele degli Scalzi 2, I-56124 Pisa, Italy.
E Dipartimento di Difesa e Coltivazione Specie Legnose, Università di Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, I-56124 Pisa, Italy.
F Corresponding author. Email: m.tattini@ivalsa.cnr.it
Functional Plant Biology 36(6) 551-563 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP09054
Submitted: 9 March 2009 Accepted: 16 April 2009 Published: 1 June 2009
Abstract
The present study investigated the extent to which physiological and biochemical traits varied because of root-zone salinity in three Mediterranean evergreens differing greatly in their strategies of salt allocation at an organismal level: the ‘salt-excluders’, Olea europaea L. and Phillyrea latifolia L. (both Oleaceae), and Pistacia lentiscus L., which, instead, largely uses Na+ and Cl− for osmotic adjustment. Both Oleaceae spp. underwent severe leaf dehydration and reduced net photosynthesis and whole-plant growth to a significantly greater degree than did P. lentiscus. Osmotic adjustment in Oleaceae mostly resulted from soluble carbohydrates, which, in turn, likely feedback regulated net photosynthesis. Salt stress reduced the actual efficiency of PSII photochemistry (ΦPSII) and enhanced the concentration of de-epoxided violaxanthin-cycle pigments in O. europaea and P. latifolia. Phenylpropanoid metabolism was upregulated by salt stress to a markedly greater degree in O. europaea and P. latifolia than in P. lentiscus. In contrast, species-specific variations in leaf lipid peroxidation were not observed in response to salinity stress. The results suggest that the species-specific ability to manage the allocation of potentially toxic ions out of sensitive leaf organs, other than affecting physiological responses, largely determined the extent to which leaf biochemistry, mostly aimed to counter salt-induced oxidative damage, varied in response to salinity stress.
Additional keywords: gas exchange, ionic and water relations, lipid peroxidation, polyphenol metabolism, PSII photochemistry, superoxide dismutase.
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