Role of Brassinosteroids in Osmolytes Accumulation under Salinity Stress in Zea mays Plants

The accumulation of osmoprotectants is a typical response to salt stress which enables the plants to grow under stress conditions. These are the nontoxic osmoprotectants that are collectively known as compatible solutes. Brassinosteroids (BRs) are the steroidal plant hormones which influence number of physiological and morphological processes in plants and play diverse role in plant growth and development. The present work was conducted to study the effect of 28- homobrassinolide (HBL) and 24-epibrassinolide (EBL) on osmolytes (proline, glycine betaine, mannitol and total sugars) content of 30 and 60 days old plants of Zea mays subjected to salt stress (0, 40, 60, 80, 100 mM). The seeds of Zea mays var. DKC 9106 were pre-soaked in different concentrations of HBL (10 -10 , 10 - 8 , 10 -6 M) and EBL (10 -10 , 10 -8 , 10 -6 M) for 12 hours. Finding of present study revealed that application of HBL and EBL both enhanced the osmolytes accumulation in salt stressed plants of Zea mays which was found to be provide tolerance against salinity stress.