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Germination,
growth and nodulation of Trigonella foenum graecum (Fenu
Greek) under salt stress
Hanaa
Abdelmoumen and
Mustapha
Missbah El Idrissi*
Laboratoire Biologie des Plantes et des Microorganismes,
Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Oujda,
Morocco.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
missbah49@yahoo.fr.
Fax: 212 36 50 06 03.
Accepted 20 March, 2009 |
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In this work, we analyzed the effects of salinity on seed
germination, growth and nodulation of fenugreek plants. The
germination of fenugreek seeds was not affected by salt
concentrations lower than 140 mM. Two saline tolerant
indigenous rhizobia strains were isolated from the root
nodules of fenugreek grown in two different soils. The two
rhizobial strains were tested for their ability to grow
under high salt stress and then assessed for their ability
to nodulate fenugreek grown under different salt stress
levels. We have found that the two strains have differential
sensitivity to high salt levels. The inoculation of
fenugreek with these strains results in better plant growth
under salt stress than uninoculated plants. Twenty percent
of plants inoculated with strains S9D or S3G survived in 175
mM NaCl, whereas all controls supplemented or not with
nitrogen did not grow. Although plants survived in these
salt concentrations, many phenotypic alterations were
observed, such as stems short length, small number of leaves
and reduced fresh weight. No fenugreek plant grew at salt
concentrations higher than 175 mM NaCl. Stem and root
proteins content was also affected by salinity. However,
plants inoculated with the two rhizobial strains were more
tolerant to salt than controls. The strains infectivity as
estimated by the plants nodules number was also reduced by
salinity.
Key words:
Fenugreek, plant growth, rhizobia, salt stress, seed
germination, nodulation. |
