Abstract
Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L. This study evaluated the role of foliar-applied melatonin in mitigating NaCl-induced stress in salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive genotypes. Under control conditions, plant height was 30.5 cm (tolerant) and 28.4 cm (sensitive), which declined to 21.2 cm and 19.2 cm under NaCl stress. Melatonin application (20 µM) restored height to 24.8 cm and 22.4 cm, respectively. Leaf area decreased from 41.7 to 31.6 cm² (tolerant) and 39.5 to 29.3 cm² (sensitive) under salinity, but improved to 36.4 and 32.8 cm² with melatonin. Fresh weight declined from 15.7 to 9.8 g (tolerant) and 14.2 to 8.4 g (sensitive), while dry weight decreased from 5.78 to 3.54 g and 5.12 to 3.13 g, respectively; melatonin significantly improved biomass accumulation. Salinity reduced SPAD values (52 to 43; 50 to 40) and relative water content (86% to 62%; 81% to 56%) while increasing electrolyte leakage to 39% and 46%. Melatonin enhanced SPAD (46; 42), RWC (70%; 64%), and reduced leakage (29%; 33%). Oxidative damage markers increased under NaCl, as MDA rose to 110 and 125 nmol g-¹ FW and H₂O₂ to 4.2 and 5.5 nmol g-¹ FW in tolerant and sensitive genotypes, respectively; melatonin notably reduced the levels of H₂O₂ and MDA. It was observed that antioxidant activity was reduced due to salinity stress. Accumulation of Na⁺ increased to 35 and 42 mg g-¹ DW, while K⁺ declined, elevating the Na⁺/K⁺ ratio; application of melatonin improved ionic balance. Gene expression results indicated that NaCl exposure upregulated the CaSOS1 and CaSOS2, whereas exogenous application of melatonin reduced their expression and upregulated CaSOD and CaCAT. Conclusively, melatonin improved salinity tolerance through coordinated regulation of growth, antioxidant defense and ionic homeostasis.
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Claims 20
Claim · model-written summary
Salinity reduced height in tolerant and sensitive genotypes.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.
Capsicum frutescense1 - Treatment
- NaCl stresse0
- Outcome
- plant heighte0
- Direction
- declinede0
- Comparator
- control conditionse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Under control conditions, plant height was 30.5 cm (tolerant) and 28.4 cm (sensitive), which declined to 21.2 cm and 19.2 cm under NaCl stress.”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Melatonin restored height under salt stress.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Treatment
- Melatonin application (20 µM)e0
- Outcome
- heighte0
- Direction
- restorede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Melatonin application (20 µM) restored height to 24.8 cm and 22.4 cm, respectively.”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Salinity decreased leaf area in both genotypes.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Treatment
- salinitye0
- Outcome
- Leaf areae0
- Direction
- decreasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Leaf area decreased from 41.7 to 31.6 cm² (tolerant) and 39.5 to 29.3 cm² (sensitive) under salinity”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Melatonin improved leaf area in both genotypes.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Treatment
- melatonine0
- Outcome
- improvede0
- Direction
- improvede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“but improved to 36.4 and 32.8 cm² with melatonin.”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Salinity reduced fresh weight.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Outcome
- Fresh weighte0
- Direction
- declinede0
Not reportedTreatmentComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Fresh weight declined from 15.7 to 9.8 g (tolerant) and 14.2 to 8.4 g (sensitive)”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Salinity reduced dry weight.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Outcome
- dry weighte0
- Direction
- decreasede0
Not reportedTreatmentComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“dry weight decreased from 5.78 to 3.54 g and 5.12 to 3.13 g, respectively”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Melatonin improved biomass accumulation.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Treatment
- melatonine0
- Outcome
- biomass accumulatione0
- Direction
- improvede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“melatonin significantly improved biomass accumulation.”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Salinity reduced SPAD values.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Treatment
- Salinitye0
- Outcome
- SPAD valuese0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Salinity reduced SPAD values (52 to 43; 50 to 40)”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Salinity reduced relative water content.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Outcome
- relative water contente0
Not reportedTreatmentComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“relative water content (86% to 62%; 81% to 56%)”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Salinity increased electrolyte leakage.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Outcome
- electrolyte leakagee0
- Direction
- increasinge0
Not reportedTreatmentComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“increasing electrolyte leakage to 39% and 46%.”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Melatonin enhanced SPAD.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Treatment
- Melatonine0
- Outcome
- SPADe0
- Direction
- enhancede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Melatonin enhanced SPAD (46; 42)”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Melatonin enhanced relative water content.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Outcome
- RWCe0
Not reportedTreatmentComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“RWC (70%; 64%)”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Melatonin reduced electrolyte leakage.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Outcome
- leakagee0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedTreatmentComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“reduced leakage (29%; 33%).”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
NaCl increased MDA.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Outcome
- MDAe0
- Direction
- rosee0
Not reportedTreatmentComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“MDA rose to 110 and 125 nmol g-¹ FW”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
NaCl increased H₂O₂.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Outcome
- H₂O₂e0
Not reportedTreatmentComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“H₂O₂ to 4.2 and 5.5 nmol g-¹ FW”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Melatonin reduced H₂O₂ and MDA levels.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Treatment
- melatonine0
- Outcome
- levels of H₂O₂ and MDAe0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“melatonin notably reduced the levels of H₂O₂ and MDA.”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Salinity reduced antioxidant activity.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Treatment
- salinity stresse0
- Outcome
- antioxidant activitye0
- Direction
- reducede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“antioxidant activity was reduced due to salinity stress.”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Na accumulation increased while K declined under salinity.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Outcome
- Accumulation of Na⁺e0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedTreatmentComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Accumulation of Na⁺ increased to 35 and 42 mg g-¹ DW, while K⁺ declined, elevating the Na⁺/K⁺ ratio”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Melatonin improved ionic balance.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Treatment
- application of melatonine0
- Outcome
- ionic balancee0
- Direction
- improvede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“application of melatonin improved ionic balance.”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
Claim · model-written summary
NaCl upregulated CaSOS1 and CaSOS2 whereas melatonin reduced them and upregulated CaSOD and CaCAT.
- Taxon
- Capsicum frutescens L.Capsicum frutescense1
- Gene
- CaSOS1 and CaSOS2e0
- Outcome
- expressione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“NaCl exposure upregulated the CaSOS1 and CaSOS2, whereas exogenous application of melatonin reduced their expression and upregulated CaSOD and CaCAT.”
e1“Salinity-induced stress severely impairs the growth and physiological performance of Capsicum frutescens L.”
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See all 6 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.