article · ACS Omega
Soil salinisation increasingly threatens agricultural productivity as a consequence of climate change. A pot experiment investigated whether applying potassium nitrate can mitigate the physiological and biochemical damages caused by salinity stress in two radish genotypes, 40 day radish and Mino radish. Salt stress significantly diminished shoot and root growth, leaf development, photosynthetic pigments, and gas exchange parameters, while sharply elevating oxidative stress markers such as malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and electrolyte leakage. The exogenous addition of potassium nitrate counteracted these negative outcomes. It increased the production of protective non-enzymatic compounds, including phenolics, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, and anthocyanin. In addition, it enhanced the activities of vital antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, and ascorbate peroxidase. Ultimately, the treatment reduced oxidative damage and supported plant growth and nutritional profiles under stress.
Rising soil salinity caused by climate change and sea level rise poses a major challenge to global vegetable production. Understanding how simple chemical interventions protect crops helps maintain food output in degraded lands. Demonstrating that potassium nitrate enhances natural antioxidant defences offers a viable mechanism for helping sensitive horticultural crops withstand saline growing conditions.
The work highlights potassium nitrate as a potential soil treatment to support vegetable cultivation in salt-affected agricultural soils, which could benefit commercial growers and agricultural input providers. However, because the results originate from an early-stage pot experiment, real-world farm application remains distant. Translation into practical agricultural guidelines will require extensive open-field trials and economic feasibility assessments under diverse field environments.
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Soil salinization has become a major issue around the world in recent years, as it is one of the consequences of climate change as sea levels rise. It is crucial to lessen the severe consequences of soil salinization on plants. A pot experiment was conducted to regulate the physiological and biochemical mechanisms in order to evaluate the ameliorative effects of potassium nitrate (KNO<sub>3</sub>) on <i>Raphanus sativus</i> L. genotypes under salt stress. The results from the present study illustrated that the salinity stress induced a significant decrease in shoot length, root length, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root fresh weight, root dry weight, number of leaves per plant, leaf area chlorophyll-a, chlorophyll-b, total chlorophyll, carotenoid, net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and transpiration rate by 43, 67, 41, 21, 34, 28, 74, 91, 50, 41, 24, 34, 14, 26, and 67%, respectively, in a 40 day radish while decreased by 34, 61, 49, 19, 31, 27, 70, 81, 41, 16, 31, 11, 21, and 62%, respectively, in Mino radish. Furthermore, MDA, H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> initiation, and EL (%) of two varieties (40 day radish and Mino radish) of <i>R. sativus</i> increased significantly (<i>P</i> < 0.05) by 86, 26, and 72%, respectively, in the roots and also increased by 76, 106, and 38% in the leaves in a 40 day radish, compared to the untreated plants. The results also elucidated that the contents of phenolic, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, and anthocyanin in the two varieties (40 day radish and Mino radish) of <i>R. sativus</i> increased with the exogenous application of KNO<sub>3</sub> by 41, 43, 24, and 37%, respectively, in the 40 day radish grown under the controlled treatments. Results indicated that implementing KNO<sub>3</sub> exogenously in the soil increased the activities of antioxidants like SOD, CAT, POD, and APX by 64, 24, 36, and 84% in the roots and also increased by 21, 12, 23, and 60% in the leaves of 40 day radish while also increased by 42, 13, 18, and 60% in the roots and also increased by 13, 14, 16, and 41% in the leaves in Mino radish, respectively, in comparison to those plants grown without KNO<sub>3</sub>. We found that KNO<sub>3</sub> substantially improved plant growth by lowering the levels of oxidative stress biomarkers, thereby further stimulating the antioxidant potential system, which led to an improved nutritional profile of both <i>R. sativus</i> L. genotypes under normal and stressed conditions. The current study would offer a deep theoretical foundation for clarifying the physiological and biochemical mechanisms by which the KNO<sub>3</sub> improves salt tolerance in <i>R. sativus</i> L. genotypes.
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DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c01039
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