Abstract:
Salinity Stress is one of the most important environmental stresses that cause adverse effects on crop productivity and agricultural sustainability. The present experiment was carried out as a pot-culture in the poly-house and identified various morpho-physiological and biochemical attributes which progressively reduced with increase in salinity level due to formation of reactive oxygen species i.e. hydrogen peroxide (H
2O
2) and superoxide radical (O
2.-). Treatment of seeds in
Trichoderma asperellum (T42)
and exogenous application of salicylic acid, singly and in combination, ameliorated salt stress induced responses reflected by detoxification of both reactive oxygen species, H
2O
2 and O
2.- histochemically, and also changes in several growth phenotypes and physio-biochemical attributes in terms of length of shoot, length of root, number of leaves per plant, leaf area and plant dry weight, chlorophyll a and b, and carotenoid content as compared to control of respective salinity levels. Exogenous foliar application of SA (0.25 mM), singly and in combination of
Trichoderma, ameliorated the hostile effects of salinity up to the level of 8 dSm
-1 which showed a significant expansion of plant phenotype as compared to the untreated stressed plants.