20% Sea water irrigation: antioxidative responses in sunflower

Soil salinity is one of the most common and widespread environmental stress in natural and agricultural systems. Na stress causes impairments of metabolism in plants with reduction of their productivity. Some crops are more sensitive than others to high soil sodium. This study investigated the antioxidative mechanisms of response to salinity in shoots and roots of the sunflower ecotype Katharina Piacenza irrigated with seawater at the rate of 20%. The increase of reduced glutathione to oxidized glutathione ratio and glutathione reductase activity in the plant roots seem to play a central role in the sunflower tolerance to salt stress.