Under salt stress conditions, a significant decrease was observed in length, fresh-dry weights and dry matter of shoot by approximately 10.15%, 11.70%, 14.81% and 3.41%, respectively (Table 1). On the other hand, antioxidant enzymes activities (SOD, GR and APX) were significantly (p<0.01) increased by 20.70%, 10.65% and 6.46%, respectively, while interestingly, unlike these enzymes, catalase (CAT) activity significantly decreased by 28.26% when compared to control (Table 2). Compared to control, the MDA and proline contents of the shoot were also significantly (p<0.01) increased by 110.58% and 374.74% respectively, in the shoot of salt-treated vetch seedling.
The salt treatment caused significant reductions by 20.77%, 9.52%, 60.00% and 56.04% in length, fresh-dry weights and dry matter of root of salt-treated vetch seedling, respectively (Table 3). On the other hand, compared to control, the activities of SOD, CAT, GR and APX were increased by 57.97%, 200.96%, 4.84% and 6.40%, respectively, in the root of salt-treated vetch seedling (Table 4). However, the contents of MDA and proline were increased by 263.28% and 265.72% in the root of salt-treated vetch seedling when compared to control (Table 4).
This study aimed to reveal the level of biochemical responses of the shoot and root tissues of vetch seedling to salt stress. However, some morphological parameters of shoot and root were evaluated. The present findings showed that the morpho and biochemical responses of different seedling (shoot and root) organs of common vetch to salt stress were different. In terms of morphology, the typical adverse effect of salt stress on plants is that the reduction of growth due to the restriction of cell elongation (
Bandeoðlu et al., 2004). Similarly, the shoot and root of vetch seedling showed diverse responses in terms of growth parameters under salt stress. In support of our observation, many studies have shown that there was significant adverse effect of salinity on the growth of seedling organs of the plant (
Bandeoðlu et al., 2004;
Talukdar, 2011;
Tsegay and Gebreslassie, 2014;
Piwowarczyk et al., 2016).
There some biochemical becomes changes in plants under stress conditions. One of them is the antioxidant defense mechanism that is preserving at the biochemical levels in plants from adverse effects of stress. Antioxidant enzymes are an essential part of this mechanism. Glutathione reductase (GR) ascorbate peroxidase (APX), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), are the main four enzymes of the defense system in plants. In the present study, activities of GR, APX, SOD and CAT, were evaluated in shoot and root tissues of vetch seedling. The results showed that SOD, GR and APX activities were increased under salt stress in seedling organs (Table 2 and Table 4). A similar observation was also reported by
Bandeoðlu et al., (2004) in Lentil,
Kusvuran (2015) in Hungarian vetch (
Vicia pannonica Crantz.) and
Beyaz (2019) in sainfoin. Moreover, as supporting our results,
Ercan (2008) reported that GR and APX activity raised in leaves and roots of Lentil (
Lens culinaris M.) seedlings, depending on their differing in salt tolerance. Drought stress and salt stress are known to be brothers and both cause oxidative stress in plants. In parallel with the results of this research, it has been reported in many previous studies (
Beyaz (2019);
Beyaz and Yýldýz (2020) that antioxidative enzyme activities at different levels [cellular and organ (root and shoot)] increase in plants as a result of drought stress.
As mentioned above, according to the literature, the general tendency is to increase the activity of antioxidant enzymes under salt stress in plants. On the other hand, we found that CAT activity tended to decrease (28.26%) in shoot tissue under salt stress. Similar results were reported by
Bandeoðlu et al., (2004) study in which CAT activity was decreased in leaves of Lentil (14-day-old) under salt stress (100 and 200 mM NaCl). Moreover,
Khan et al., (2002) noted that activity of CAT was decreased in root tissue of rice under salt stress. In addition, de Azevedo
Neto et al., (2006) reported that salt stress did not affect CAT activity in leaves while reduced it in root tissue of salt-sensitive maize genotype. Similarly,
Ercan (2008) noted that CAT activity significantly decreases in shoots (approximately 60% ) and roots (approximately 48% ) of Lentil seedlings under salt stress application (150 mM NaCl). Under salt stress, the deactivation of the catalase enzyme may be depending on the inhibition of new enzyme synthesis (Feýerabend and Dehne, 1996) or photo-inactivation of catalase
(Polle et al., 1997).
Proline is one of the most important osmo-protectant that protects cells from free radicals in plants under stress conditions (
Bandeoðlu et al., 2004). Our results also demonstrated a marked increase in proline contents in the shoot (374.74%) and root (265.72%) tissue of vetch seedlings under salt stress.
Bandeoðlu et al., (2004) argued that proline accumulation in shoot and root tissue of Lentil increased under salt stress.
Khan et al., (2002) also reported that proline accumulation increased in root tissue that exposed salt stress, of rice. The evidences of the study clearly showed that proline accumulation is higher in shoot tissue than in root tissue.
The evidences of the study indicated that the salt stress caused increase of the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) contents in the shoot (110.58%) and root (263.28%) tissue of vetch seedling. In support of this observation,
Bandeoðlu et al., (2004) reported that MDA content was increased in shoot and root tissue of Lentil seedling under salt stress. Moreover
Abdelgawad et al., (2016) noted that under salt stress, MDA content was increased in root tissue of maize seedling.
Overall, according to our results, the growth was reduced higher in root tissue than in shoot tissues. Roots are the first organ to come into contact with salt stress, so their growth is less than that of shoots (
Lazof and Bernstein, 1997;
Abdelgawad et al., 2016). On the other hand, the results of the present study showed that the antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, GR and APX) were higher in root than in shoot. However, the increasing rate of MDA was higher in root tissue than in shoot tissue. These results could be attributed to the initial and intense exposure of the root tissue to the stress factor. Otherwise, the accumulation of proline was higher in shoot tissue than in root tissue. It may speculate that the reasons for this phenomena were due to the lack of activity of antioxidant enzymes such as CAT to scavenge ROS in shoot tissue.