Antioxidant responses of shoots and roots of lentil to NaCl-salinity stress

The effect of salt stress (100 mM and 200 mM NaCl) on antioxidant responses in shoots and roots of 14-day-old lentil (Lens culinaris M.) seedlings was investigated. Salt stress caused a significant decrease in length, wet-dry weight and an increase in proline content of both shoot and root tissues. In leaf tissues, high salinity treatment resulted in a 4.4 fold increase in H2O2 content which was accompanied by a significant level of lipid peroxidation and an increase in electrolyte leakage. Root tissues were less affected with respect to these parameters. Leaf tissue extracts exhibited four activity bands, of which two were identified as Cu/Zn-SOD and others as Fe-SOD and Mn-SOD. Fe-SOD activity was missing in root extracts. In both tissues Cu/Zn-SOD activity comprised 70–75% of total SOD activity. Salt stress did not cause a significant increase in total SOD activity of leaf tissues but a significant enhancement (88%) was observed in roots mainly due to an enhancement in Cu/ZnSOD isoforms. Compared to leaf tissues a significantly higher constitutive ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and glutathion reductase (GR) activity was observed in root tissues. Upon salt stress no significant change in the activity of APX, catalase (CAT) and GR was observed in root tissues but a higher APX activity was present when compared to leaf tissues. On the other hand, in leaf tissues, with the exception of CAT, salt stress caused significant enhancement in the activity of other antioxidant enzymes. These results suggested that, root tissues of lentil are protected better from NaCl stress induced oxidative damage due to enhanced total SOD activity together with a higher level of APX activity under salinity stress. To our knowledge this is the first report describing antioxidant enzyme activities in lentil.