Journal Article

Improvement of salt tolerance in Vicia faba (L.) seedlings: a comprehensive investigation of the effects of exogenous calcium chloride

Elshobary, Mostafa E., Diab, Rana H., Abo-Shanab, Walaa A., Czubacka, Anna

2025

Overview

Background This study investigated the effects of the different concentrations of CaCl 2 (10 and 15 mol m −3 ) on the growth, physiology, and cytological characteristics of salt-stressed Vicia faba (L.) seedlings grown under greenhouse conditions. Results Salinity stress (150 mol m −3 NaCl) had detrimental effects on all measured growth parameters, increased the micronucleus count number (MCN) by 26.6 micronuclei/1000 cells, decreased the mitotic index (MI) by 66.6%, and caused various chromosomal aberrations, nuclear alterations, and chromatin bridges in salt-stressed seedlings compared to the untreated plant. Nevertheless, the seed priming with CaCl 2 (10 and 15 mol m −3 ) significantly alleviated the toxic effects induced by salinity stress, improved growth parameters, total chlorophyll (TChl), proline, and total soluble sugar (TSS) contents in salt-stressed faba bean seedling compared with seedlings germinated from non-primed seeds. The antioxidative system of salt-stressed faba bean was highly stimulated by increasing the activity of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzymes as well as phenolics and flavonoids were increased in all salt-stressed seedlings germinated from seeds primed with CaCl 2 (10 and 15 mol m −3 ) indicating an improved tolerance of faba bean plant to salinity stress. Notably, the pretreatment with CaCl 2 (10 mol m −3 ) reduced the micronuclei number per 1000 cells by 91.3% and decreased the abnormality index by 58.9% more effectively than CaCl 2 (15 mol m −3 ). SDS-PAGE profiling revealed the presence of 16 proteins with different molecular weights, including two peptides, induced by CaCl 2 (10 mol m −3 ) in response to salinity stress. Conclusions This study showed that 10 mol m −3 CaCl 2 significantly improved salt tolerance in treated faba bean plants mitigating the antagonistic effects of salt stress on several physiological and cytological parameters.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Abiotic stress / Agricultural research / Agriculture / Antioxidants - metabolism / Beans / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Broad beans / Calcium chloride / Calcium Chloride - pharmacology / Carbohydrates / Carotenoids / Catalase / Cell division / Chloride / Chlorophyll / Chlorophyll - metabolism / Chromatin / Chromosomal aberrations / Chromosome aberrations / Contamination / Efficiency / Enzymes / Faba bean / faba beans / Flavonoids / greenhouses / Hardiness / Life Sciences / MCN test / Metabolism / Metabolites / Micronuclei / mitosis / Parameters / Peptides / Peroxidase / phenolic compounds / Physiological aspects / Physiological effects / Physiology / Plant growth / Plant Sciences / Plants / polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis / Production processes / proline / Reactive oxygen species / Salinity / Salinity effects / Salinity stress / Salinity tolerance / Salt / salt stress / Salt stress (Botany) / Salt tolerance / Salt Tolerance - drug effects / SDS-PAGE / Seedlings / Seedlings - drug effects / Seedlings - growth & development / Seedlings - physiology / Seeds / Sodium chloride / sugars / Superoxide dismutase / Toxicity / Tree Biology / Vicia faba / Vicia faba - drug effects / Vicia faba - growth & development / Vicia faba - physiology