Salt Pretreatment-Mediated Alleviation of Boron Toxicity in Safflower Cultivars: Growth, Boron Accumulation, Photochemical Activities, Antioxidant Defense Response
2022
Özlem Arslan | Şeküre Çulha Erdal | Yasemin Ekmekçi
The study aims to elucidate alleviant effects of boron (B) toxicity by salt pretreatment (SP) on growth response, phytoremediation capacity, photosynthesis, and defense mechanisms in two safflower cultivars (<i>Carthamus tinctorius</i> L.; Dinçer and Remzibey-05). Eighteen-day-old plants were divided into two groups: SP (75 mM NaCl for 5 days) and/or B treatment (C, 2, 4, 6, and 8 mM B for 10 days). Depending on the applied B toxicity, B concentrations in roots and leaves of both cultivars, necrotic areas of leaves, ion leakage (RLR), and H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> synthesis increased, while shoot and root length as well as biomass, water, chlorophyll a+b, and carotenoid content decreased. In addition, chlorophyll a fluorescence results revealed that every stage of the light reactions of photosynthesis was adversely affected under B toxicity, resulting in decreases in performance indexes (PI<sub>ABS</sub> and PI<sub>TOT</sub>). However, the cultivars tended to induce the synthesis of anthocyanins and flavonoids and increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD, APX, and GR) to detoxify reactive oxygen species (ROS) under B toxicity. SP mitigated the negative effects of toxic B on biomass, water and pigment content, membrane integrity, photosynthetic activity, and defense systems. Considering all results, Remzibey-05 was able to better overcome the biochemical and physiological changes that may be caused by B toxicity by more effectively rendering B harmless, although it accumulated more B than Dinçer.
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