ASSESSMENT OF ANTIOXIDANTS ACTIVITY IN SEVEN WHEAT GENOTYPES GROWN UNDER NACL SALINITY

Abstract

Salinity, drought, temperature variation, nutrient disproportion, chemical toxicity and oxidative stress are the very important environmental problems that effect crop productivity in the whole world. A sand culture experiment was carried out in a wire house of old Botanical Garden, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad.  Seven genotypes of wheat were collected from Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad that was Parwaz 94, Faisalabad-83, Punjab-96, Iqbal 2000, SH- 2002, AS- 2002 and Lasani- 08. Seeds were sown in plastic pots containing 10 kg of thoroughly washed sand and irrigated with full strength Hoagland’s nutrient solution. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design (CRD) factorial with 3 replications. Two salt levels i.e. 0 and 150 mM L^-1 were applied to establish salt stress conditions. After germination, the seedlings were treated with salinity. Antioxidants are the substances that counteract oxidative stress in plants subjected to some abiotic menace due to up regulation of reactive oxygen species. Antioxidants slow down lipid per-oxidation processes and thus shield biological membranes. It is believed that plants with high antioxidant levels have better confrontation to reactive oxygen species. In present studies we checked the effect of salinity on production of antioxidant species in wheat. The main objective of this study was to check the activity of antioxidants under NaCl stress. In current study the antioxidant (SOD, POD, CAT) activity was enhanced under NaCl stress.