Salicylic Acid and Iron Nanoparticles Application to Mitigate the Adverse Effects of Salinity Stress Under In Vitro Culture of Strawberry Plants

To explore the impact of salicylic acid (SA) (0, 0.01, and 0.05 mM) and iron nanoparticles (INs) (0, 0.08, and 0.8 ppm) and their interaction on morpho-physiological response of strawberry to salinity stress (0, 50, and 100 mM NaCl), a three-way factorial experiment with three replications was conducted under in vitro condition. Based on the results, salinity not only decreased total dry weight (TWD) and total soluble protein, but also increased the content of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), malondialdehyde (MDA), proline, and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) enzymes. Most of the observed changes under control and salinity were explained by principal component analysis (PCA) based on vegetative and physiological traits. The first two components (PC1 and PC2) accounted for 72.8% and 20.4% of the changes, respectively. The highest activity of POD and SOD enzymes as well as the highest content of proline was obtained in the simultaneous presence of 0.05 mM salicylic acid and 0.8 ppm INs. Taken together, the present study revealed that implementation of SA and INs under salinity stress could alleviate the adverse effects of salinity on strawberry under in vitro conditions.