Vegetos
(An International Journal of Plant Research & Biotechnology)
Phenotypic responses of Capsicum annuum L. to salinity stress under in vitro conditions
*Article not assigned to an issue yet
Research Articles | Published: 24 July, 2025
First Page: 0
Last Page: 0
Views: 2
Keywords: Pepper, Salinity, Abiotic stress, in vitron
Abstract
Pepper is a widely cultivated and consumed vegetable in Türkiye and globally. However, salinity has negative effects on the development of plants and is considered an important problem in the cultivation of many plant species. This study investigated the effects of varying concentrations of sodium chloride (NaCl) (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 mM) added to Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium on the in vitro growth of pepper plants. Key physiological and morphological parameters were evaluated, including germination rate (CO), average germination time (OCS), salt tolerance index (TTI), real water content (RWC), fresh and dry weights of shoots and roots, shoot and root lengths, and visual damage scores (1–5). Results showed that increasing NaCl concentrations negatively impacted pepper growth. The highest CO (82.33%) and the shortest MGT (3.50 days) were recorded in the control-BA medium, while the lowest CO (58.00%) occurred in the 250 mM NaCl-BF medium. The greatest visual damage (score of 3.80) was observed in the BF medium, followed by the 200 mM NaCl-BE medium (3.60). As a result, pepper growth was significantly inhibited by increasing NaCl concentrations, demonstrating the plant’s sensitivity to salinity stress.
References
Abbas T, Balal RM, Shahid MA, Pervez MA, Ayyub CM, Aqueel MA, Javaid MM (2015) Siliconinduced alleviation of NaCl toxicity in Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is associated with enhanced photosynthesis, osmoprotectants and antioxidant metabolism. Acta Physiol Plant 37:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-014-1768-5
Abdel-Farid IB, Marghany MR, Rowezek MM, Sheded MG (2020) Effect of salinity stress on growth and metabolomic profiling of Cucumis sativus and Solanum lycopersicum. Plants 9:1626. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9111626
Ahmad P, Jaleel CA, Salem MA, Nabi G, Sharma S (2010) Roles of enzymatic and non-enzymaticantioxidants in plants during abiotic stress. Crit Rev Biotechnol 30:161–175. https://doi.org/10.3109/07388550903524243
Ahmad P, Hakeem KR, Kumar A, Ashraf M, Akram NA (2012) Saltinduced changes in photosyntheticactivity and oxidative defense system of three cultivars of mustard (Brassica juncea L). Afr J Biotechnol 11:2694–2703
Avcı UY, Ahmed HAA, Uranbey S, Akdoğan G (2020) Determination of different cotton genotypes against salt stress tolerance under In vitro conditions. Gaziosmanpasa J Sci Res 9:13–26
Aydın İ, Atıcı Ö (2015) Effects of salt stress on germination and seedling development in some crop plants. Muş Alparslan Univ J Sci 3:1–15
Azuma R, Ito N, Nakayama N, Suwa R, Nguyen NT et al (2010) Fruits are more sensitive to salinity than leaves and stems in pepper plants (Capsicum annuum L). Sci Hortic 125:171–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2010.04.006
Baktemur G (2023) Effect of nutrient media including sodium chloride (NaCl) at different concentration on squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) plant growth under In vitro conditions. Osmaniye Korkut Ata Univ J Inst Sci Technol 6:873–882
Bardakçı H (2019) The effect of spermidine on germination and seedling development In sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) under in vıtro salt stress conditions, MSc Thesis. Selçuk University, Institute of Sciences, Konya
Bybordi A (2010) The influence of salt stress on seed germination, growth and yield of Canola cultivars. Not Bot Horti Agrobot Cluj-Napoca 38:128–133. https://doi.org/10.15835/nbha3813572
Cvetković T, Ranilović J, Jokić S (2022) Quality of pepper seed by-products: A review. Foods 11:748. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11050748
Daşgan HY, Aktas H, Abak K, Çakmak İ (2002) Determination of screening techniques to salinity tolerance in tomatoes and ınvestigation of genotype responses. Plant Sci 163:695–703. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9452(02)00091-2
Daşgan HY, Koç S, Ekici B, Aktaş H, Abak K (2006) Responses of some bean and cow pea genotypes to salt stress. Alatarım 5:23–31
Denli N (2019) Expansion of genetic basis via interspecies crossing of pepper (Capsicum annuum) and determination the inheritance of androgenesis, PhD Thesis. Çukurova University, Institute of Sciences, Adana
Dere S (2021) The effects of different salt concentration pretreatments on germination and seedling growth parameters in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). J Inst Sci Technol 11:3324–3335. https://doi.org/10.21597/jist.1026844
Gökçe ZNÖ, Hafsanur ATİK, Vural M, Gökçe AF (2022) Determination of germination characteristic of seeds of some onion (Allium Cepa L.) breeding lines under in vitro conditions with different salt concentration. Alatarım 21:1–9
Gurnani N, Gupta M, Mehta D, Kumar Mehta B (2016) Chemical composition, total phenolic and flavonoid contents, and in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of crude extracts from red Chilli seeds (Capsicum frutescens L). J Taibah Univ Sci 10:462–470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtusci.2015.06.011
Güldüren Ş (2012) Salinity tolerance of some bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotypes collected from North East Anatolıa region and Çoruh Valley, MSc Thesis. Atatürk University, Institute of Sciences, Erzurum
Hassen A, Maher S, Cherif H (2014) Effect of salt stress (NaCl) on germination and early seedling parameters of three pepper cultivars (Capsicum annuum L). J Stress Physiol Biochem 10(1):14–25
Ibn Maaouia Houimli S, Denden M, Ben El Hadj S (2008) Induction of salt tolerance in pepper (Capsicum annuum) by 24- Epibrassinolide. EurAsia J BioSci 2:83–90
Jamil M, Ur Rehman S, Lee KJ, Kim JM, Kim HS, Shik-Rha E (2007) Salinity reduced growth PS2 photochemistry and chlorophyll content in radish. Sci Agric (Piracicaba Braz) 64:111–118
Kaur G, Kumar S, Nayyar H, Upadhyaya HD (2008) Cold stress injury during the pod- fillingphase in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.): effects on quantitative and qualitative components of seeds. J Agron Crop Sci 194:457–464. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-037X.2008.00336.x
Kara E, Baktemur G (2023) Determination of growth level of garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) in nutrıtıonal media containing different concentratıons of NaCl in vitro conditions. Sivas II. International Conference on Scientific and Innovation Research 15–17 September - Sivas/ Türkiye pp.,1191–1200
Kara E, Taşkın H, Baktemur G (2024) Determination the effects of different concentrations of salt (NaCl) added to the nutrient medium under in vitro conditions on the development of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L). ISPEC J Agricultural Sci 8(2):301–309. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11123176
Kaya MD, Okçu G, Atak M, Çıkılı Y, Kolsarıcı Ö (2006) Seed treatments to overcome salt and drought stress during germination in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L). Eur J Agron 24:291–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2005.08.001
Keleş B (2019) Morphological, physiological and biochemical changes in safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) germinatıng under in vıtro culture condıtions and salinity (NaCl) stress, MSc Thesis. Batman University, Institute of Sciences, Batman
Keleş D, Taşkın H (2023) Biber (Capsicum annum L.) yetiştiriciliği. In: Baktemur G (ed) Sebze yetiştiriciliği. Iksad, Ankara, pp 29–56
Khayatnezhad M, Gholamin R (2011) Effects of salt stress levels on five maize (Zea Mays L.) cultivars at germination stage. Afr J Biotechnol 10:12909–12915. https://doi.org/10.5897/AJB11.1568
Kıran S, Kuşvuran Ş, Özkay F, Özgün Ö, Sönmez K, Özbek H, Ellialtıoğlu ŞŞ (2015) Comparison of development of some eggplant rootstock in the salinity stress conditions. Res J Agric Sci 8:20–30
Loganayaki K, Tamizhmathi S, Brinda D, Gayathri S, Mary MC, Mohanlal V (2020) In vitro evaluation of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), chilli (Capsicum annum L.), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and Bhendi (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) for salinity stress. Int J Chem Stud 8:2364–2367. https://doi.org/10.22271/chemi.2020.v8.i2aj.9104
Li Z, Song Z, Yan Z, Hao Q, Song A et al (2018) Silicon enhancement of estimated plant biomass carbon accumulation under abiotic and biotic stresses. A meta-analysis. Agron Sustain Dev 38:1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-018-0496-4
Machado RMA, Serralheiro RP (2017) Soil salinity: effect on vegetable crop growth. Management practices to prevent and mitigate soil salinization. Horticulturae 3:30. https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae3020030
Mahmood MS, Pırlak L (2023) Aronya (Aronia melanocarpa) Fidanlarının in vitro ve in vivo Şartlarda Tuz Stresine Toleranslarının belirlenmesi. Int Conf Sci Innovative Stud 1:86–91
Mantri N, Patade V, Penna S, Ford R, Pang E (2012) Abiotic stress responses in plants: present and future. In: Ahmad P, Prasad MNV (eds) Abiotic stress responses in plants: metabolism, productivity and sustainability. Springer, New York, pp 1–19
Murashige T, Skoog F (1962) A revised medium for rapid growth and bio assays with tobacco tissue cultures. Physiol Plant 15:473–497. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-3054.1962.tb08052.x
Rahman M, SoomroUA, Haq MZ, Gul S (2008) Effects of Nacl salinity on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars. World J Agric Sci 4:398–403
Safdar H, Amin A, Shafiq Y, Ali A, Yasin R, Shoukat A, Hussan MU, Sarwar MI (2019) A review: impact of salinity on plant growth. Nat Sci 17:34–40
Saraçoğlu AÖ, Akat H (2022) Effects of different salinity levels on some quality criteria and plant nutrients in soilless ornamental Kale (Brassica Oleracea var. acephala). Cultivation J Grad Sch Nat Appl Sci Mehmet Akif Ersoy Univ 13:114–128. https://doi.org/10.29048/makufebed.1087207
Seth R (2018) Assessment of salinity tolerance in tomato cultivars grown in maharashtra, India. Ann Plant Sci 7:2259
Shahbaz M, Ashraf M, Al-Qurainy F, Harris PJ (2012) Salt tolerance in selected vegetable crops. CRC Crit Rev Plant Sci 31:303–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352689.2012.656496
Shams M, Khadivi A (2023) Mechanisms of salinity tolerance and their possible application in the breeding of vegetables. BMC Plant Biol 23:139. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-023-04152-8
Thakur P, Kumar S, Malik JA, Berger JD, Nayyar H (2010) Cold stress effects on reproductive development in grain crops: an overview. Environ Exp Bot 67:429–443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2009.09.004
Turhan A, Kusçu H¸ Seniz V (2011) Effects of different salt concentrations (NaCl) on germination of some spinach cultivars. J Agric Fac Uludag Univ 25:65–77
Vorasoot N, Songsri P, Akkasaeng C, Jogloy S, Patanothai A (2003) Effect of water stress on yield and agronomic characters of peanut. Songklanakarin J Sci Technol 25:283–288
Yücel HŞ, Balkaya A, Kandemir D, Arslan H (2022) Determination of salinity tolerance levels of some eggplant rootstock candidates. Mustafa Kemal Univ J Agric Sci 28:71–91. https://doi.org/10.37908/mkutbd.1158795
Zapata PJ, Serrano M, Pretel MT, Amorós A, Botella MÁ (2004) Polyamines and ethylene changes during germination of different plant species under salinity. Plant Sci 167:781–788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2004.05.014
Author Information
Faculty of Agricultural Science and Technology, Sivas University of Science and Technology, Sivas, Türkiye