Early stress detection in tomato (Solanum lycopersicon) induced by moderate salinity using spectral reflectance and molecular approaches
Altartouri, B.
Salinity stress is one of the main reasons of significant reduction in crop productivity in the Mediterranean basin. Timely intervention before the onset of salt-stress is critical to prevent severe stress symptoms and, thereby, increase their productivity. The objective of this preliminary study is to identify early indicators of moderate (i.e. 5.2 EC) salinity stress before the onset of the symptoms at both the physiological and the molecular level. We used a non-destructive spectral reflectance signature (350-2500nm) and expression analysis of salt-stress related genes towards this objective. We showed that spectral reflectance of the leaves is a valuable tool to detect early moderate salinity stress using tomato as a model plant. Furthermore, we used statistical approaches to identify spectral bands with altered values in response to moderate salinity stress. Preliminary results of spectral reflectance indicated that wavelengths in the VIS region (400-700nm) were more valuable than NIR or SWIR regions to detect early salinity stress. Our results suggest that biochemical and microarray leaf analysis at the period before the earliest spectral reflectance differences between moderate salinity treatment and control plants can be used to identify biomolecules which can serve as biomarkers of salinity stress.
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