Responses to Salt Stress in <i>Portulaca</i>: Insight into Its Tolerance Mechanisms
Climate change and its detrimental effects on agricultural production, freshwater availability and biodiversity accentuated the need for more stress-tolerant varieties of crops. This requires unraveling the underlying pathways that convey tolerance to abiotic stress in wild relatives of food crops,...
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MDPI AG
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Plants |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/9/12/1660 |
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| author | Orsolya Borsai Mohamad Al Hassan Cornel Negrușier M. Dolores Raigón Monica Boscaiu Radu E. Sestraș Oscar Vicente |
| author_facet | Orsolya Borsai Mohamad Al Hassan Cornel Negrușier M. Dolores Raigón Monica Boscaiu Radu E. Sestraș Oscar Vicente |
| author_sort | Orsolya Borsai |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Climate change and its detrimental effects on agricultural production, freshwater availability and biodiversity accentuated the need for more stress-tolerant varieties of crops. This requires unraveling the underlying pathways that convey tolerance to abiotic stress in wild relatives of food crops, industrial crops and ornamentals, whose tolerance was not eroded by crop cycles. In this work we try to demonstrate the feasibility of such strategy applying and investigating the effects of saline stress in different species and cultivars of <i>Portulaca</i>. We attempted to unravel the main mechanisms of stress tolerance in this genus and to identify genotypes with higher tolerance, a procedure that could be used as an early detection method for other ornamental and minor crops. To investigate these mechanisms, six-week-old seedlings were subjected to saline stress for 5 weeks with increasing salt concentrations (up to 400 mM NaCl). Several growth parameters and biochemical stress markers were determined in treated and control plants, such as photosynthetic pigments, monovalent ions (Na<sup>+</sup>, K<sup>+</sup> and Cl<sup>−</sup>), different osmolytes (proline and soluble sugars), oxidative stress markers (malondialdehyde—a by-product of membrane lipid peroxidation—MDA) and non-enzymatic antioxidants (total phenolic compounds and total flavonoids). The applied salt stress inhibited plant growth, degraded photosynthetic pigments, increased concentrations of specific osmolytes in both leaves and roots, but did not induce significant oxidative stress, as demonstrated by only small fluctuations in MDA levels. All <i>Portulaca</i> genotypes analyzed were found to be Na<sup>+</sup> and Cl<sup>−</sup> includers, accumulating high amounts of these ions under saline stress conditions, but <i>P. grandiflora</i> proved to be more salt tolerant, showing only a small reduction under growth stress, an increased flower production and the lowest reduction in K<sup>+</sup>/Na<sup>+</sup> rate in its leaves. |
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| id | doaj.art-9c5e9a23573a4125b07c5d4ee2d547ab |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2223-7747 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T14:31:17Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Plants |
| spelling | doaj.art-9c5e9a23573a4125b07c5d4ee2d547ab2023-11-20T22:34:08ZengMDPI AGPlants2223-77472020-11-01912166010.3390/plants9121660Responses to Salt Stress in <i>Portulaca</i>: Insight into Its Tolerance MechanismsOrsolya Borsai0Mohamad Al Hassan1Cornel Negrușier2M. Dolores Raigón3Monica Boscaiu4Radu E. Sestraș5Oscar Vicente6Institute of Life Sciences, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Mănăștur St. 3-5, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaWageningen UR Plant Breeding, Wageningen University and Research Centre, 6708 PB Wageningen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Soil Sciences, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Mănăștur St. 3-5, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaInstitute for the Conservation and Improvement of Valencian Agrodiversity (COMAV), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, SpainMediterranean Agroforestry Institute (IAM), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, SpainFaculty of Horticulture, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Mănăștur St. 3-5, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaInstitute for the Conservation and Improvement of Valencian Agrodiversity (COMAV), Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, SpainClimate change and its detrimental effects on agricultural production, freshwater availability and biodiversity accentuated the need for more stress-tolerant varieties of crops. This requires unraveling the underlying pathways that convey tolerance to abiotic stress in wild relatives of food crops, industrial crops and ornamentals, whose tolerance was not eroded by crop cycles. In this work we try to demonstrate the feasibility of such strategy applying and investigating the effects of saline stress in different species and cultivars of <i>Portulaca</i>. We attempted to unravel the main mechanisms of stress tolerance in this genus and to identify genotypes with higher tolerance, a procedure that could be used as an early detection method for other ornamental and minor crops. To investigate these mechanisms, six-week-old seedlings were subjected to saline stress for 5 weeks with increasing salt concentrations (up to 400 mM NaCl). Several growth parameters and biochemical stress markers were determined in treated and control plants, such as photosynthetic pigments, monovalent ions (Na<sup>+</sup>, K<sup>+</sup> and Cl<sup>−</sup>), different osmolytes (proline and soluble sugars), oxidative stress markers (malondialdehyde—a by-product of membrane lipid peroxidation—MDA) and non-enzymatic antioxidants (total phenolic compounds and total flavonoids). The applied salt stress inhibited plant growth, degraded photosynthetic pigments, increased concentrations of specific osmolytes in both leaves and roots, but did not induce significant oxidative stress, as demonstrated by only small fluctuations in MDA levels. All <i>Portulaca</i> genotypes analyzed were found to be Na<sup>+</sup> and Cl<sup>−</sup> includers, accumulating high amounts of these ions under saline stress conditions, but <i>P. grandiflora</i> proved to be more salt tolerant, showing only a small reduction under growth stress, an increased flower production and the lowest reduction in K<sup>+</sup>/Na<sup>+</sup> rate in its leaves.https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/9/12/1660abiotic stressantioxidant activitygrowth inhibitionion homeostasisprolinesalt stress |
| spellingShingle | Orsolya Borsai Mohamad Al Hassan Cornel Negrușier M. Dolores Raigón Monica Boscaiu Radu E. Sestraș Oscar Vicente Responses to Salt Stress in <i>Portulaca</i>: Insight into Its Tolerance Mechanisms Plants abiotic stress antioxidant activity growth inhibition ion homeostasis proline salt stress |
| title | Responses to Salt Stress in <i>Portulaca</i>: Insight into Its Tolerance Mechanisms |
| title_full | Responses to Salt Stress in <i>Portulaca</i>: Insight into Its Tolerance Mechanisms |
| title_fullStr | Responses to Salt Stress in <i>Portulaca</i>: Insight into Its Tolerance Mechanisms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Responses to Salt Stress in <i>Portulaca</i>: Insight into Its Tolerance Mechanisms |
| title_short | Responses to Salt Stress in <i>Portulaca</i>: Insight into Its Tolerance Mechanisms |
| title_sort | responses to salt stress in i portulaca i insight into its tolerance mechanisms |
| topic | abiotic stress antioxidant activity growth inhibition ion homeostasis proline salt stress |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/9/12/1660 |
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