Salt Stress Induced Morphological, Anatomical and Ionic Alterations in Chickpea

Salinity is a global challenge to agriculture production. Cicer arientinum L. grows under wide range of climatic conditions and is highly sensitive to salt stress. Salt stress causes osmotic, ionic and secondary stress, impairing various metabolic processes in plants and eventually results in a decline in the plant yield. The aim of the present study was to study the effect of salinity on morphological, anatomical and ionic responses of chickpea seedlings of the genotype PBG-7. Three NaCl concentrations (40 mM, 60 mM and 80 mM) with three replicates were investigated by conducting the experiments in petriplates and growth pouches. For the first 7 days, experiments were carried out in petriplates. Thereafter, the seedlings were transferred to the growth pouches of respective treatment and were maintained subsequently for 21 days. The results collectively suggest that salt stress negatively affected the xylem and phloem width along with the total biomass production. Further, the results indicated that salinity leads to an increase in the sodium ion content in the plants and was accompanied by a decline in K+/Na+ as well as Ca2+/Na+ ratio. Sodium ion content was found to be negatively correlated with all the measured parameters.