Response of Two Tomato Cultivars to Field-applied Proline and Salt Stress

Kahlaoui, B.; Hachicha, M.; Teixeira, J.; Misle, E.; Fidalgo, F.; Hanchi, B.

Journal of Stress Physiology & Biochemistry, Vol. 9 No. 3 2013, pp. 357-365 ISSN 1997-0838
Original Text Copyright (cc) 2013 by Kahlaoui, Hachicha, Teixeira, Misle, Fidalgo, Hanchi

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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QueryDate : 2016-12-24
Cites : 6

Response of Two Tomato Cultivars to Field-applied Proline and Salt Stress

Kahlaoui B¹., Hachicha M¹., Teixeira J²., Misle E³., Fidalgo F²., Hanchi B⁴.

¹ National Research Institute of Rural Engeneering, Waters and Forestry (INRGREF), 17 rue Hédi Karray, BP n°10 Ariana 2080, Tunisia.
² BioFIG - Center for Biodiversity, Functional & Integrative Genomics; Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, Biology Department, Edifício FC4, Rua do Campo Alegre, s/n° 4169 – 007 Porto, Portugal.
³ Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Forestry, Universidad Católica del Maule, Chile.
⁴ Faculty of Sciences, Tunis, University Campus, 1060 Tunis, Tunisia.

*E-Mail: besma.kahlaoui@gmail.com

Received April 25, 2013

An experiment was carried out using saline water (6.57 dS.m^-1) and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) on two tomato cultivars (Solanum lycopersicum, cv. Rio Grande and Heinz-2274) in a silty clay soil. The former is a salinity tolerant and the latter a sensitive cultivar. Exogenous application of proline was done by foliar spray at two concentrations: 10 and 20 mg.L^-1, with a control (saline water without proline), during the flowering stage. As a result of the proline applied, significant effects were observed on both cultivars of tomato, particularly with low concentration of proline (10 mg.L^-1). It led to increase of leaf area, growth length and fruit yield. Regarding mineral nutrition, Ca²⁺ was higher in different organs while low accumulation of Na⁺ occurred. However, Cl^- was very low significantly in all tissues of plants of Rio Grande at the higher concentration of proline applied.

Key words: Solanum lycopersicum, salt tolerance, exogenous application, proline, Tunisia, saline stress