Exogenous spermidine-induced changes at physiological and biochemical parameters levels in tomato seedling grown in saline-alkaline condition

BACKGROUND: Tomato is one of the most popular vegetables, and middle tolerance for salt stress. Spermidine (Spd) has an important role in plant defense mechanisms against abiotic stress; however, relatively few data are available regarding Spd in responses of tomato to saline-alkaline stress. The effect of 0.25 mmol/L Spd on some physiological parameters of two tomato cultivars grown in 75 mmol/L saline-alkaline solutions were studied. Two cultivars are cv. Jinpeng chaoguan which is a highly salt-tolerant ecotype and cv. Zhongza No. 9 which is more salt-sensitive ecotype. RESULTS: Saline-alkaline stress upset nitrogen metabolism, induced the antioxidant enzyme activities, and accumulated much more reactive oxygen species (ROS) and osmoregulation substances in two tomato cultivars leaves. Under saline-alkaline stress condition, Spd-treated seedlings accumulated more osmoregulation substances and had greater activities of antioxidative enzymes. Exogenous Spd counteracted the stress-induced increase of contents of malondialdehyde and ammonium, glutamate dehydrogenase activity, and decreased in nitrate, nitrate reductase, nitrite reductase, glutamine synthetase, glutamate synthase, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase, and glutamate pyruvate transaminase activities. Additionally, the effect of Spd was more significantly in salt-sensitive cultivar ‘Zhongza No. 9’. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, exogenous spermidine can attenuate negative effects of saline-alkaline stress on tomato seedlings which effects may depend on the plant species, and even cultivars. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40529-014-0058-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.