A Comparative Analysis on Morphological and Physiological Characteristics between Castor Varieties (Ricinus communis L.) under Salt Stress

Abstract

Salt stress is one of the main abiotic factors affecting castor yield. Wild castor resources can provide important insights for cultivated castor breeding. However, little is known about how wild castor responds or adapts to salt stress. To understand the physiological mechanisms for salt tolerance in castor, the morphological and physiological responses of two varieties, wild and cultivated castor, with contrasted salt tolerance were characterized under salt stress. Seedlings were exposed to 0, 50, and 100 mM NaCl. The results showed that salt application significantly inhibited the increase in chlorophyll content and relative water content of cultivated castor. The degree of electrolyte leakage of wild castor under salt stress was significantly less than that of cultivated castor. In addition, the WT showed a lower content of reactive oxygen species (ROS) under the salt stress compared to CT. The activities of antioxidant enzymes like SOD, APX, GR, and MDHAR in the leaves of WT showed higher accumulation compared to those of CT under salt stress. The ratio of ASA/DHA and GSH/GSSG in leaves of WT showed a distinct increase compared to CT. In summary, our results revealed the salt stress resistance characteristics of wild castor. Wild castor also has the potential to be used as parental material in a breeding program. These results will be valuable for salt resistance breeding of cultivated castor.

Functions of Basic Helix–Loop–Helix (bHLH) Proteins in the Regulation of Plant Responses to Cold, Drought, Salt, and Iron Deficiency: A Comprehensive Review

“…High salinity is estimated to affect about 20% of the world’s total land area, posing a significant agricultural problem . Due to their stationary growth habit, plants must withstand salinity stress and have developed interconnected regulatory pathways to cope with it .…”

“…High salinity is estimated to affect about 20% of the world's total land area, posing a significant agricultural problem. 224 Due to their stationary growth habit, plants must withstand salinity stress and have developed interconnected regulatory pathways to cope with it. 225 In fact, drought and salinity often occur together, leading to common physiological changes, such as the initiation of intracellular Ca 2+ spikes, accumulation of various soluble compounds and osmolytes, and the generation of ROS, all of which result in decreased yield and quality.…”

Trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP) participates in cold acclimatization of Actinidia arguta depending on the ethylene signal transduction pathway

“…Enzyme activities were expressed per mg of protein. SOD, POD, and CAT activities were assayed according to the method of (Huang et al 2022a).…”

Morphometric, weight, viability, and germination analysis of castor bean seeds (Ricinus communis) under two temperature and relative humidity conditions

“…From the diversity point of view -and in order to evaluate the variability between and within genotypes or species-, the morphometric characterization of plants (seeds and fruits) is based on the qualitative or quantitative values (Barrios-Gómez et al, 2018;Canul-Ku et al, 2022;Pecina-Quintero et al, 2013), the knowledge about sizes and shapes, and the useful data available. This information can be used to design innovative management and storage techniques in natural ecosystems and farms (Huang et al, 2022;Peña-Uribe et al, 2021). These measurement techniques include vision systems that have been implemented (Modarres Najafabadi and Farahani, 2012) to find out the morphometric dimensions of the objects, in order to generate databases (Acosta et al, 2013).…”