Salicornia europaea tolerates effect of soil salinity through flavonoid production

With increasing global warming, arid lands and inland water bodies, such as Uromia Lake, have become vulnerable to increased salinity. This has enabled many halophyte plants, such as Salicornia europaea to advance in dried out lake sediments. Salinity is one of the major environmental factors that limit plant growth and productivity.It leads to osmotic stress, ion toxicity, nutrient deficiency and production of reactive oxygen species(ROS). In this research, physiological aspects of non-enzymatic anti-oxidants production contributing to S. europaea to tolerate increased salinity in Uromia Lake is investigated. Samples of S. europaea and rhizosphere soil were collected from 5 locations in Uromia Lake bed. Content of Malondialdehyde (MDA), as lipid peroxidation indicator and total flavonoids were measured by De Vos method and Krizek method,respectively. Although salinity rate differed among stations, no significant differences were observed in MDA contents, but trends of flavonoids production correlated strongly with the salinity trend. Flavonoids act in plants as antioxidants, antimicrobials, photoreceptors, visual attractors, feeding repellants, and for light screening. However, most interest has been devoted to the antioxidant activity of flavonoids, which is due to their ability to reduce free radical formation and to scavenge free radicals. It is concluded that S.europaea can tolerate ill-effects of ROSs produced as a result of increased salinity by increasing its flavonoid production and preservation of its cell membrane integrity

Keywords:

Salicornia europaea , Malondialdehyde , Reactive oxygen spices , Flavonoid