Journal
PLANTS-BASEL
Volume 9, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/plants9020220
Keywords
alfalfa; melatonin; salt tolerance; antioxidants
Categories
Funding
- National Nature Science Foundation of China [31672478]
- Natural Science Foundation of Beijing, China [6162016]
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Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is an important and widely cultivated forage grass. The productivity and forage quality of alfalfa are severely affected by salt stress. Melatonin is a bioactive molecule with versatile physiological functions and plays important roles in response to various biotic and abiotic stresses. Melatonin has been proven efficient in improving alfalfa drought and waterlogging tolerance in recent studies. In our reports, we applied melatonin exogenously to explore the effects of melatonin on alfalfa growth and salt resistance. The results demonstrated that melatonin application promoted alfalfa seed germination and seedling growth, and reduced oxidative damage under salt stress. Further application research found that melatonin alleviated salt injury in alfalfa plants under salt stress. The electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde (MDA) content and H2O2 content were significantly reduced, and the activities of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD) were increased with melatonin pretreatment compared to control plants under salt stress with the upregulation of genes related to melatonin and antioxidant enzymes biosynthesis. Melatonin was also involved in reducing Na+ accumulation in alfalfa plants. Our study indicates that melatonin plays a primary role as an antioxidant in scavenging H2O2 and enhancing activities of antioxidant enzymes to improve the salt tolerance of alfalfa plants.
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