In saline-stressed common bean, growth parameters response to chitosan treatments

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of foliar spray with 0.05% conventional chitosan (Cs) or chitosan nanoparticles (CsNPs), before salinity treatment on growth and photosynthetic pigments of Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Nebraska. Plants were grown on a sandy clay soil and sprayed with 0.05% Cs or CsNPs 16 and 21 days after planting before imposing salinity stress by irrigation with 0, 25, 50, 100 and 200 mM NaCl. Chitosan nanoparticles were prepared using methacrylic acid and showed a mean size of 40 ± 2 nm. Salinity stress caused deleterious effects on growth and photosynthetic pigments of Phaseolus vulgaris. Foliar spray with Cs or CsNPs resulted in improvement of growth and photosynthetic pigments, with alleviation of the impact of  salinity stress and greater beneficial effect of CsNPs compared with Cs.

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