Relationship of Salt Stress Sensitivity to Stress Induced Gene of Egyptian Clover

Soil salinity is one of the factors that limit plant growth and productivity. Since 20% of the total irrigated land of the world is affected by salt, then understanding salt tolerance mechanisms and breeding salt-tolerant crops could help maintain the world's food security. Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) is an economically important nitrogen-fixing legume but there are very few studies regarding this crop's response to salt stress. If studies would reveal the responses of Egyptian clover to salt stress and growth reduction due to salt stress, then it could lead to the development of effective molecular breeding programs. Thus, Gaber M. Abogadallah of New Damietta Department of Botany conducted a study to investigate the physiological and molecular defects leading to growth reduction under salt stress.

Three salt-stress groups of Egyptian clover plants were watered with different salt concentrations, incubated for 12 days and then dried. Dry weights and water contents of the plants were recorded. Results showed that the plant is more resistant to the osmotic component of salt stress. There was also an inhibition of photosynthesis which could have been due to excessive buildup of sodium ions in the leaves along with reduction in the response to sodium ions sequestering genes. This leads to ineffective sodium ion sequestration into the vacuole and consequent damage to the photosynthetic mechanism.

Read the abstract at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2010.03.008.