Effect of NaCl on growth and physiological traits of Anabena cylindrica L.

Abstract

Anabena cylindrica L. is an important nitrogen fixing cyanobacterium native to paddy soils. In order to study the effects of salinity which occurs in flooded paddy soils, caused by high level of NaCl, on the growth and physiological parameters, Anabena was exposed to six levels of NaCl stress ranging from 50-300 mM besides control. The study revealed that all the growth parameters showed a declining trend with increased NaCl stress upto 200 mM beyond which there was complete degeneration. Similar trend was found in case of various pigmentation attributes, protein and sugar content except in case of total sugar content for which there was initial increase with increasing NaCl concentration probably due to an adaptive mechanism employed by Anabena under NaCl stress. © 2006 Asian Network for Scientific Information.