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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (10): 141-152.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2022486

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Effects of H2O2 immersion on seed germination and seedling growth of alfalfa under salt stress

Jiao-yun LU1(), Hong TIAN1, He-shan ZHANG1, Jun-bo XIONG1, Yang LIU1(), Zhen-nan WANG2()   

  1. 1.Key Laboratory of Animal Emobryo Engineering and Molecular Breeding of Hubei Province,Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinarian,Hubei Academy of Agricultural Science,Wuhan 430064,China
    2.College of Agriculture and Forestry Science,Linyi University,Linyi 276000,China
  • Received:2022-12-13 Revised:2023-02-02 Online:2023-10-20 Published:2023-07-26
  • Contact: Yang LIU,Zhen-nan WANG

Abstract:

Salt stress is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting the normal growth of plants worldwide. Exogenous H2O2 can alleviate the damage caused by salt stress on plants by altering the activity of plant peroxidase and osmotic regulatory substances. In this study, different salt stress concentrations (0, 0.6%, 1.2%, 1.8% NaCl) and H2O2 immersion seed treatments (0, 5, 100 μmol·L-1 H2O2) were used to study the effects of H2O2 on seed germination, seedling growth, antioxidant enzyme activity and osmotic adjustment substances of alfalfa under the different salt stress concentrations. It was found that: 1) With successive increases in NaCl concentration, the germination rate, germination potential, germination index and vigor index of alfalfa seed progressively decreased. With increase in NaCl concentration, the fresh weight, dry weight and absolute water content of alfalfa seedlings aboveground and whole plant initially increased and then decreased at higher concentration, while the fresh weight, dry weight and absolute water content of roots continued to decrease across the tested concentration range. With increasing NaCl concentration, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and soluble protein content increased gradually, catalase (CAT) activity and malondialdehyde content increased initially and then decreased, peroxidase (POD) activity and soluble sugar contents were lower than those of seedlings without salt stress. 2) The germination potential, germination index and vigor index of alfalfa seed were improved by H2O2 immersion. The fresh weight, dry weight, root∶shoot, SOD and CAT activities, proline and soluble protein contents of alfalfa seedlings under the 5 μmol·L-1 H2O2 immersion treatment were higher than those under the 100 μmol·L-1 H2O2 and distilled water immersion treatments, while the malondialdehyde content of the 5 μmol·L-1 H2O2 treatment was lower than that of 100 μmol·L-1 H2O2 and distilled water immersion treatments. Multivariate analysis showed that salt stress inhibited seed germination and seedling growth of alfalfa, and that alfalfa seedlings resisted salt stress by increasing antioxidant enzyme activity and osmotic regulatory substance content. The salt resistance of alfalfa seeds and seedlings was improved by H2O2 immersion, and soaking seeds with 5 μmol·L-1 H2O2 was better than soaking with 100 μmol·L-1 H2O2.

Key words: salt stress, H2O2 immersion, seed germination, seedling growth, antioxidant enzyme activity, osmotic adjustment substances, Medicago sativa