Investigating The Antioxidant Role of Melatonin on Alfalfa Roots (Medicago sativa L.) Under Salt Stress in Tissue Culture Conditions

Salinity stress is one of the most important environmental stress in the world and one of the important factors in reducing growth in many plants, especially in arid regions of the world. Salinity stress and increased sodium ion lead to the induction of oxidative stress and consequent cell death. Melatonin is a multiple function molecule spread in different plant and triggers several physiologic responses to different environmental stress. Exogenous application of melatonin to several plants can improve crop growth and development in response to many abiotic and biotic stresses with adjusting the antioxidant system of plants. Current studies reported that, the exogenous melatonin can increase plants' stress resistance by regulating both the enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense process. In this study, the effect of melatonin on alfalfa roots under tissue culture condition was investigated. The aim of the present study was to investigate how melatonin regulated the antioxidant system and non-enzymatic antioxidants such as reduced glutathione and ascorbate under salt stress

In this study, alfalfa seeds (Medicago sativa) of the Isfahani variety were used and we studied the effect of melatonin and salinity stress on the alfalfa root. In order to sterilize the seeds, they were placed in a 70% ethanol solution for one minute and then in a 20% sodium hypochlorite solution for 20 minutes. After disinfecting the seeds, seeds were placed in each culture dish containing MS (Murashige and Skoog) culture medium. After germination, alfalfa seeds were transferred to MS culture medium containing concentrations of 0, 0.1, 10, and 15 micromolar melatonin and concentrations of 0, 150 and 200 mM salt. After 10 days of growth, total antioxidant capacity, the activity level of catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, guaiacol peroxidase, and glutathione reductase, ascorbate and glutathione levels in alfalfa roots were measured.

Also, in the salinity stress, melatonin treatment significantly increased the total antioxidant power, while no significant difference was observed between different concentrations of melatonin, 0.1µM melatonin 82 درصد and 62 درصد raised antioxidant activity under 150 and 200 mM NaCl, so melatonin can reduce the levels of reactive oxygen species by scavenging of them through antioxidant enzyme or non- antioxidant system. Based on the results Melatonin treatment caused a significant increase in antioxidant power, the activity of CAT, APX, POD, SOD, GR enzymes, and antioxidant compounds in the glutathione-ascorbate cycle including DHA, ASC/DHA, GSH, and GSH/GSSG. along with increasing salinity concentration. On the other hand, salt stress increased oxidized compounds including DHA and GSSG in alfalfa roots. The data were carried out by two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by Duncan’s multiple range tests.

In addition to its direct role in clearing free radicals, melatonin activates the antioxidant defense system of the root, i.e. both antioxidant enzymes and antioxidant compounds in the ascorbate-glutathione cycle, which increases the resistance to damage oxidative effects caused by salinity stress in alfalfa root. These findings proposed that exogenous melatonin utilization dramatically activated ROS scavenging systems including enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidants to keep a relatively low amount of ROS and increased the tolerance of alfalfa root against salinity stress.