Background: In our previous study, six cultivars of Mungo (Vigna radiata) were exposed to 100-250 mM NaCl and studied for changes in growth and biomass. Among them AEM-96 cultivar of the Mung bean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek cv.] was found to tolerate the NaCl stress at 250 mM. Objective: The soluble proteome of salt-tolerant mungo cultivar (AEM-96) was compared to the proteome of control mungo to work out the possible mechanism of salinity tolerance. Methods: Gel-based two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was employed for comparative proteomics. PDQuest-based image analysis of 2D SDS-PAGE was performed. Scatter plots were prepared and total spots were analysed for 2-fold changes in abundance of protein spot intensities in control and treated gels. Results: In total 517 protein spots were detected; 36 with high significance. Among these 36 spots, 2-fold expression change was analysed in 27 protein spots. Seven spots were upregulated, eight spots were down-regulated, 3 were newly induced and 9 were silenced, while as 9 did not change their abundance 2-fold under salinity. Protein spots (9 in total) which were 2-fold upregulated and newly induced were excised from the respective gels. The spots were tryptically digested and run on LC-MS/MS for generating peptides and performing a comparative fingerprinting of the proteins. The peptide signal data was loaded on the Mascot (Swissprot) database to retrieve protein IDs. Proteins with the best score were selected, namely isomers of oxygen-evolving enhancer protein 1 (S1-S3), RuBisCO (S4), oxygen-evolving enhancer protein 2 (S5), Heat shock protein 70 isomers (S6-S7), RuBisCO activase (S8), rubber elongation factor (S9) and pathogen-related protein 10 (S10). Conclusion: The identified proteins were found to play important roles in photosynthesis, stress response and plant growth.

rows in comparison with sole cropped of each species and different phosphorus fertilization rates (0.0, 32 and 48 P 2 O 5 kg/faddan) and their combination treatments on growth, yield components, oil production as well as some competitive indices of both tested crops. Application of phosphorus at 48 kg P 2 O 5 /faddan caused significant increase in all parameters of fennel and fenugreek over the other rates under study. Intercropping system 1:3 (fennel: fenugreek), in most cases, significantly increased the recorded growth parameters, yield components, fixed oil content of fenugreek and volatile oil yield per fennel plant as well as competitive indices of the two components in the two seasons, whereas all intercropping systems significantly decreased seed, fruit and oil yield per faddan compared to sole crop (control). In addition, from studying competitive indices, it was clear that, the high land equivalent ratio (1.137 and 1.156), area time equivalent ratio (1.013 and 1.023), land utilization efficiency (107.53% and 108.72%) and relative crowding coefficient (2.143 and 2.917) values were achieved by the combination treatment between intercropping system of one row of fennel alternating with three rows of fenugreek combined with phosphorus at a rate of 32 P 2 O 5 kg/faddan during the first and second seasons, respectively. Generally, it could be gained from sowing one faddan, by using the intercropping pattern of 1:3 combined with phosphorus fertilization at 32 kg P 2 O 5 /faddan , the same yield which would required about 1.137 or 1.156 faddan of each crop cultivated alone. Also this treatment is economic by using small area.