Physiological, genetical changes and cdc2 gene expression for osmotic stressed Vicia faba reveal the alleviation effect of gamma radiation and putrescine

Climate change caused increasing in soil salinity worldwide. Therefore, it is critical to enhance the capability of plant to tolerate salinity stress. For this goal, putrescine and irradiation by gamma radiation were used to improve the salt tolerance of Vicia faba (the most important human crop). The results indicated depression in mitotic division and all growth parameters associated with the induction of micronucleus (MN) when salinity increased to 100mM, while there was increase in mitotic aberrations. NaCl decreased total soluble sugar, while total N%, total free amino acid, proline and protein contents showed slight increase with increasing salinity stress. Putrescine and gamma radiation mitigated the effect of salinity on cell division and growth parameters. Salt stress decreased the expression of gene encoding cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (cdc2). Both putrescine and gamma radiation increased cdc2 expression. The genetic diversity has been detected among control and treated V. faba using ISSR and SCoT markers. Ten primers had successfully generated 129 reproducible polymorphic amplicons that were suitable for studying the genetic diversity between studied genotypes. ISSR markers provided more discriminating data and were more informative than SCoT markers. Besides, cluster analysis using UPGMA and PAC successfully explained the genetic diversity within studied genotypes. These findings emphasize the efficiency of putrescine and gamma radiation for alleviating the negative impact of salt stress. Moreover, prove the importance of assessing mitotic activity, chromosomes behavior, physiological parameters, the expression level of cdc2 and molecular diversity in V. faba under stress to improve the salt tolerance of it.