article · Journal of Plant Production
Hydroponic experiments examined the effect of immersing strawberry roots in hydrogen peroxide for one or two hours prior to exposure to salinity stress caused by sodium chloride. Immersion in hydrogen peroxide enhanced plant growth, leaf relative water content, photosynthetic pigment concentrations, and the activity of antioxidant enzymes, specifically catalase, peroxidase, and polyphenoloxidase, whilst decreasing electrolyte leakage. Exposure to high salinity caused extensive structural damage to leaf mesophyll cells, swelling thylakoids, disintegrating grana, altering mitochondria, and increasing stomatal density. Root pre-treatment with hydrogen peroxide prevented many of these structural disruptions, preserving chloroplast and cell wall integrity. Overall, immersing roots in a 1.0 M hydrogen peroxide solution for one hour improved salinity resistance and protected cellular organelles.
Salinity in irrigation systems damages cellular structures and limits crop yields, posing a major challenge for sensitive crops like strawberries. Demonstrating that a simple root immersion in hydrogen peroxide can protect cellular integrity and activate internal antioxidant defences provides valuable insight into improving plant resilience against environmental stress in controlled agricultural settings.
This research is at an early experimental stage and could inform cultivation protocols for commercial greenhouse and hydroponic strawberry growers facing saline water supplies. If validated at scale, growers and hydroponic input suppliers could adopt short root-immersion treatments prior to planting to shield crops from salinity-induced losses. Additional validation in commercial production environments is required before practical implementation.
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A hydroponic experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of immersion durations (1 and 2h) of hydrogen peroxide on roots of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) grown under NaCl stress at (0, 34 and 68 mM NaCl). Roots immersion into H2O2 increased plant growth, photosynthetic pigment concentration, leaf relative water content and the activity of antioxidant enzymes i.e. (catalase, peroxidase and polyphenoloxidase) as well as decrease electrolyte leakage compared to untreated plants. High NaCl salinity level, induced ultrastructural alterations in leaflet mesophyll cells such as swelling thylakoids, disintegration of grana staking, increase number of plastoglobuli and starch grains as well as increase the size and number of mitochondria and its structure, shrinkage the plasma membranes, increase the Myelin-Like, membrane vesicles formation and increase the thickness of cell wall. In addition, roots immersion into H2O2 led to maintain the chloroplast structure, grana staking and increase the size of chloroplast and mitochondria, decrease the number and size of starch grains and plastoglobuli, decrease the number of membrane vesicles and peroxisomes, as well as maintain the cell wall structural and reduced its thickness. Furthermore, the high NaCl level led to increase the number of stomata and stomatal density and decreased the dimensions of stomatal pore. On the contrary, roots immersion into H2O2 decreases the stomatal density and its number. Concerning the leaflet anatomy, it was found that low NaCl salinity level increased the dimensions of midrib region, main vascular bundle as well as the thickness of palisade parenchyma. While, high salinity level, in most cases, decreased all these parameters. In conclusion, immersed roots of strawberry plants (pre-treatment) in H2O2 (1.0 M) for 1h application before exposure to salinity stress increased plant resistance and mitigated the deleterious effects of NaCl on cellular organelles.
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DOI: 10.21608/jpp.2018.36617
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