Salinity is one of the most important abiotic stresses which can negatively affect the plant metabolic processes in the world. This can impact the plant production, either for economic or sustenance benefits. The salinity stress can cause many physiological and biochemical changes in the plants. beta-glucans arc important polysaccharides, which are present in the cell walls of various cereal grains. They protect the plant responses and occur in plant suspensions. In this study, the researchers attempted to investigate various physiological mechanisms and determine the role of the beta-glucans in the NaCl-mediated stress conditions on the Ocimum basilicum L. seedlings. For this purpose, they carried out an experiment for assessing various shoot and root parameters along with the antioxidant enzyme activities, proline levels and the ISSR markers. When the seedlings were exposed to the NaCl stress conditions, they showed a significant decrease in the growth parameters and an increase in the antioxidant and proline levels compared to the control seedlings grown under normal saline conditions. On the other hand, the beta-glucantreated seeds, when grown under the saline stress conditions, showed better growth parameters as well as high antioxidant enzyme activities and proline levels, compared to the control and NaCl-treated plants. Furthermore, a PCR analysis was carried out using the ISSR-marker technology, which could help in evaluating the DNA fingerprints and genetic variations in the plants. The results indicated that the exogenous application of the beta-glucans could protect the antioxidant enzyme activities and protect the plants against the salinity stresses, without affecting the DNA-markers without affecting the genetic variations and could be a better choice for use in DNA-markers.
