Glutathione mitigates sodium fluoride toxicity in pea seedlings: morphophysiological responses and biochemical analysis

Purpose: Soil salinity is an emerging threat to plant growth and crop production, resulting in substantial economic losses. Pea is one of the most important leguminous crops being grown all over the world being affected. Keeping in view the stress alleviation of glutathione, current investigation was designed to evaluate the beneficial role of seed priming with glutathione on morphological and biochemical attributes of pea under sodium fluoride stress. Methods: For this purpose, pea seeds primed with 25, 50, and 70 µM L-1 glutathione. Sodium fluoride caused a significant decline in seed germination percentage, root and shoot length. Glutathione primed seed improved the fresh and dry biomass, root nodules and proline content of Pea plant. Results: The 50 µM L-1 enhanced the growth rate by 50%, photosynthetic rate by 93% under NaF stress. Glutathione primed seed also enhanced the gas exchange parameters, i.e., transpiration rate and stomatal conductance, by 80% and 89%, respectively. Conclusions: Consequently, the results of the current study demonstrated that seed priming with glutathione can reduce the sodium fluoride stress and improved the growth of pea.