SALICYLIC ACID PREVENTS THE DAMAGING ACTION OF SALT IN MUNG BEAN [(VIGNA RADIATA L.) WILCZEK] SEEDLINGS

Growth is greatly affected by salt stress, which can be improved by the pretreatment of Salicylic acid (SA) before salt stress. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of seeds presoaking in 50 mu M, 100 mu M and 1000 mu M Salicylic acid on growth parameters of two mung bean genotypes (NM 19-19 and NM 20-21) under salinity stress (50 mM and 100 mM NaCl). It was found that salt reduced seedling length, fresh and dry weight of both genotypes, which decreased more as salt concentration increased further. Presoaking treatments with SA reduced salinity-induced decline in length, fresh weight and dry weight. However, pretreatment of high concentration of SA (1000 mu M) prior to salt treatments was able to cause significant reduction in mean seedling length in both genotypes. It was further noticed that genotype NM 19-19 showed less reduction in the seedling length, fresh weight and dry weight under salt stress therefore seemed to be more salt tolerant than NM 20-21.