Exogenous proline mitigates the detrimental effects of saline and alkaline stresses in Leymus chinensis (Trin.)

Proline accumulates in plants under environmental stresses including saline stress and alkaline stress. Here, we investigated the responses to two different stresses, saline stress (200 mM NaCl) and alkaline stress (100 mM Na₂CO₃) in two Leymus chinensis (Trin.) genotypes, LcWT07 and LcJS0107, and effects of exogenous proline on the activities of antioxidant enzymes. Both saline stress and alkaline stress significantly induced the accumulation of proline in leaves of the two genotypes after 96 h, and alkaline stress caused a transient and significant increase in LcJS0107 plants at 6 h. A reduction in the activities of catalase (CAT, EC 1.11.1.6) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX, EC 1.11.1.11), but not in the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1), was detected in plants exposed to saline and alkaline stresses. Remarkable decrease in relative water contents (RWC) was found in 144 h stressed plants. However, lipid peroxidation estimated by malonyldialdehyde (MDA) content in leaves remained relatively stable. With the addition of exogenous proline, it did not cause changes of proline levels in two genotypes, but combined with saline or alkaline stress, the exogenous application of proline significantly induced proline accumulation after even short treatment periods. Combined with salt stress, the exogenous application also increased the activities of CAT and APX. These results indicated that exogenous proline not only increases proline levels in vivo as a osmotic adjustment under stress, but mitigates the detrimental effects of saline and alkaline stresses by increasing the activities of antioxidant enzymes.