Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Soil and Water Science Dept., Faculty of Agri., Alexandria Uni. El-Shatby, Alexandria, 21545, Egypt.
2
Floriculture and ornamental Dept., Faculty of Agri., Alexandria Uni. El-Shatby, Alexandria, Egypt. Egypt.
Abstract
This work concerns with the study of the independent effect of each gamma radiation and salinity as well as their combined effect on some vegetative and flowering characters, as well as enzyme peroxidase of Tagetes erecta.
The study was carried out in the farm of the faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University. Seeds were cultivated in saline soil for two successive generations (M1 and M2) during 2003 and 2004. Seeds were irradiated by gamma radiation at doses of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 Kr. After germination, the irradiated seeds were transferred into saline soil and peatmoss to study the combined effect of both gamma radiation and salinity on the plant. The following parameters were studied for each plant: plant height, number of leaves, number of main branches, chlorophyll content, leaves fresh and dry weight, inflorescence number, diameter, and fresh and dry weight, morphological changes, and peroxidase activity.
The results illustrated that salinity caused decrease of all studied parameters of the first generation. It was also found that the plant height decreased by increasing the doses of gamma radiations during the first and second generations. However, the number of leaves as well as their dry weight increased at 10 Kr during the second generation. While, the number of leaves as well as their fresh weight increased at 5 Kr during the first generation. With regard to the number of inflorescence and their fresh weight it increased in the second generation at the same dose (5 Kr). At 15 and 20 Kr the color of inflorescence showed clear variations between the first and the second generation. It was also found that the enzyme peroxidase displayed more activity at 10, 15 and 20 Kr during the second generation in the saline soil.
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