title: Kinetin modulates physio-hormonal attributes and isoflavone contents of Soybean grown under salinity stress.
abstract: Crop productivity continues to decline due to a wide array of biotic and abiotic stresses. Salinity is one of the worst abiotic stresses, as it causes huge losses to crop yield each year. Kinetin (Kn) has been reported as plant growth regulator since long, but its role in improving plant growth and food quality under saline conditions through mediating phytohormonal cross-talk is poorly studied. Current study was designed to evaluate the impact of exogenously applied Kn on growth, isoflovones and endogenous phytohormones of soybean grown under NaCl induced salt stress. Soybean plants were grown in perlite (semi hydroponic), and under controlled green-house conditions. Elevated levels of exogenous Kn significantly mitigated the adverse effect of NaCl and rescued plant growth attributes, i.e., plant height, fresh and dry biomass of soybean plants grown in all treatments. Higher diadzen, glycitin, and genistin contents were observed in plants treated with elevated Kn in the presence or absence of NaCl induce salt stress. The gibberellins (GAs) biosynthesis pathway was up-regulated by Kn as the bioactive GA1 and GA4 contents were significantly higher in Kn treated plants, as compared to control, while GAs level reduced in NaCl treated plants. Contrary to GAs, the abscisic acid contents declined with Kn but promoted in NaCl stressed soybean plants. The endogenous jasmonic acid and salicylic acid contents of soybean enhanced with elevated Kn application, but they showed an antagonistic response under salt stress. Current study supports the active role of Kn to ameliorate the adverse effects of salt stress on the growth and food quality of soybean. The favorable role of Kn toward soybean growth under salt stress may be attributed to its potential to modulate cross-talk between the various phytohormones involved in soybean growth and its resistance to salinity stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Mardan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamayun
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Mardan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Anwar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.affiliation: Center of Biotechnology and Microbiology, University of Peshawar Peshawar, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Sumera Afzal
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Mardan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Irshad
authors.affiliation: UoN Chair of Medicinal Plants and Marine Natural Products, University of Nizwa Nizwa, Oman ; School of Applied Biosciences, College of Agriculture and Life Science, Kyungpook National University Daegu, South Korea.
authors.forename: Abdul Latif
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Biosciences, College of Agriculture and Life Science, Kyungpook National University Daegu, South Korea.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Waqas
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Biosciences, College of Agriculture and Life Science, Kyungpook National University Daegu, South Korea.
authors.forename: Raheem
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shahzad
authors.affiliation: Department of Agriculture, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Mardan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Amjad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Mardan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Nazif
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ullah
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Mardan, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Gauhar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rehman
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Sciences, University of California Davis Davis, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Ho-Youn
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Biosciences, College of Agriculture and Life Science, Kyungpook National University Daegu, South Korea.
authors.forename: In-Jung
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Lee
keywords: abscisic acid; gibberellins; jasmonic acid; kinetin; salicylic acid; salt stress; soybean