Nitric Oxide Alleviates the Inhibition of Salinity Stress on Seed Germination and Seedling Growth of Cynanchum bungei Decne (Asclepiadaceae)

As a rare, endemic, important, and salt-sensitive medicinal plant species in China, Cynanchum bungei Decne seeds were treated to germinate with distilled water (control) or NaCl solutions in the presence or absence of nitric oxide (NO) donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP) to investigate the effects of exogenous NO on seed germination, seedling growth, and antioxidant enzyme activities under salt stress. Sixty mM NaCl significantly inhibited the germination and seedling growth of C. bungei. Exogenous SNP alleviated salt stress in a dose-dependent manner, as indicated by accelerating the seed germination, increasing germination index (GI), vigor index (VD, germination velocity (GV), shoot height (SH), taproot length (TL), shoot biomass (SB), root biomass (RB) as well as shortening mean germination time (MGT), and 0.1 mM SNP was the optimal concentration. SNP at 0.1 mm greatly increased the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) under salt stress, which contributed to alleviate the oxidative stress induced by salt stress in C. bungei seeds. It is concluded that NO treatment is an effective practice to improve C. bungei seed germination under saline condition.