Effect of Salt Stress on Antioxidant Defense Systems, Lipid Peroxidation, and Chlorophyll Content in Green Bean

Salt stress-induced changes in antioxidant enzymes, such as catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione reductase (GR), total chlorophyll content, and lipid peroxidation measured as malondialdehyde (MDA) content, in leaves of a green bean genotype Gevas sirsk 57 (GS57) and cv. Fransiz 4F-89 differing in salt tolerance were investigated. Plants were subjected to three salt treatments (0, 50, and 100 mM NaCl) under controlled climatic conditions for 7 days. The salt-sensitive cv. 4F-89 exhibited a decrease in GR activity at all salt treatments, but the salt-tolerant genotype GS57 showed only a slight decrease in GR under 50 mM salt treatment and an increase under 100 mM salt treatment. CAT and APX activities increased with increasing salt stress in both varieties. CAT and APX activities were higher in the salt-tolerant GS57 than salt-ensitive cv. 4F-89. The two varieties showed an increase in MDA content with an increase in salinity, but the increase in sensitive cv. 4F-89 under salt stress was higher than that in salt-tolerant GS57 genotype. The increasing NaCl concentration caused a reduction in the chlorophyll content in cv. 4F-89 but not in GS57.