64

International Journal of Research in Plant Science 2013; 3(4): 64-67

ISSN 2249-9717
Original Article
STUDIES ON THE GERMINATION, GROWTH AND BIOCHEMICAL
COMPONENTS OF ARACHI S HYPOGEA L. IN TSUNAMI AFFECTED SOIL.
S.Sivasankaramoorthy
Department of Botany (DDE), Annamalai University, Annamalai nagar- 608 002.
*Corresponding author Email: drsivasankarmoorthy@gmail.com
Received 11 October 2013; accepted 05 November 2013
Abstract
The tsunami affected soil samples were collected from a paddy field. Different types of soils were selected for the study
viz. normal soil (N), affected soil (A), and treated soil (T). The unaffected soil from the field was used as normal soil. In
tsunami affected soil the growth parameters such as pecentage of germinaion, root length, shoot length, number of leaves,
fresh and dry weight showed decreased growth than normal soil and treated soil. The biochemical constituents such
protein, total sugar and starch showed decreased growth in tsunami affected soil. On the other hand amino acid and proline
were significantly increased when compared to control and treated soil. The content of chlorophyll and carotenoid were
increased in treated soil compare to that of tsunami affected soil.
2013 Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved
Key words: Tsunami, soil, salinity, paddy, biochemical, proline.
INTRODUCTION
On 26
th
December 2004, a major earthquake of magnitude
9 on the Richter scale occurred in the Indian Ocean on the
northern tip of Sumathra Island. This led to fast moving
giant Tsunami waves that lashed coastal line of Tamilnadu
and Puducherry caused severe damage (Ghobaraha et al.,
2006). Similar Tsunami waves had occurred in the
Tamilnadu coast during 1881 and 1941, but the details of
damage were not available. However in 2004 the Tsunami
ravaged the coastal areas and those living in the coastal
districts in multiple ways. There was a colasal loss of life
and assets, damage to soil and water in the agricultural
lands, loss of cattle and cash crops.
Salt stress mostly caused by excess of NaCl elicits two
primary effects on plants, osmotic stress and ionic toxicity,
because of high level of Na
+
and / or Cl
-
ions in the
cytoplasm (Hasegawa et al., 2000; Zhu, 2001). However
Na
+
is the primary cause of the ion specific damage of
many plants such as graminaceous plants (Antmann and
Sanders, 1999; Tester and Devanport, 2003).
The killer Tsunami has left behind hard lesion to the people
of the Tamilnadu and Puducherry coastal districts. The
Tsunami has left behind several hectares of land covered
with more than a foot of silt. Moreover the land has become
saline due to infiltration of seawater. Initial survey
undertaken by Agricultural Department soil chemist
revealed high levels of pH and EC (electrical conductivity)
in the affected soil making agriculture totally impossible.
At that time, farmers advised by the Department of
Agriculture to remove the accumulated silt as a first
measure to reclaimate the affected lands. After Tsunami, in
the coastal areas the soil is naturally reclaimated by the rain
which will automatically wash the excess salt free from the
soil. Besides these, certain areas of land still uncultivable
due to salinity caused by Tsunami.
The study was undertaken in a village, T.S. Pettai, a coastal
area in the Cuddalore district. In this village many
agricultural lands still appeared as barren lands due to
Tsunami. In the present study, two cultivars of Arachis
hypogaea var. VRI-2 was chosen to grow in normal soil,
Tsunami affected soil and treated soil to observe the effect
of salinity on growth and organic components of this
variety.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The seeds of Arachis hypogaea variety VRI-2 were
collected from Tamil Nadu Rice Research Institute,
Aduthurai. The seeds were first surface sterilized for two
minutes in 0.2% mercuric chloride solution. The surface
sterilized seeds were placed in petridish for germination
studies. From the date of germination the percentage was
calculated, on the 7
th
day after sowing. It was calculated by
(Carley and Watson, 1968). Again the surface sterilized
seeds of were allowed to germinate in polythene bags (6 x
7 inches in size) filled with soil samples collected from
unaffected field, Tsunami affected field and Tsunami
affected soil mixed with garden manure with gypsum in
7:2:1 ratio for morphological studies. The soil samples for
the experiment of Tsunami affected soil was dug out from a
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International Journal of Research in Plant Science
Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved
65
International Journal of Research in Plant Science 2013; 3(4): 64-67

pit (12 x 12 x 12) in Tsunami affected field of T.S. Pettai.
Similarly normal soil samples were collected from
unaffected field adjacent to affected paddy field. All these
bags watered regularly with tap water and maintain upto
30
th
day. On the 30
th
day after sowing five seedlings of each
replicate was selected for recording the morphological
parameters such as number of leaves, shoot length, root
length, fresh and dry weight and organic constituents were
also studied. Morphological parameters like shoot and root
length were measured and expressed in cm plant
-1
. For the
estimation of the fresh weight of leaf, stem and root
portions were separated and weighed. To estimate the dry
weight, the different plant organs were dried at 80
0
C for 48
h in an oven and weighed. Estimation of total free amino
acids (Moore and Stein, 1948), total sugars (Nelson, 1944),
starch (Summner and Somers, 1949), protein (Lowry et al.,
1951), proline (Bates et al., 1973), chlorophyll (Arnon,
1949) and carotenoid (Davis 1965) were observed.
RESULTS
The result shows that all growth parameters such as
percentage of germination, number of leaves, shoot length,
root length, fresh and dry weight were decreased in
Tsunami affected soil when compared with normal soil.
This indicate that the plant growth was inhibited by salinity
due to osmotic imbalance. Reduced plant growth in saline
soil was reported in Sorghum (Vidya Vardhini and Seeta
Ram Rao, 2005); in blackgram (Divya and Kumaravelu,
2006) in Jatropha curcus (Silva et al., 2010); in Brassica
napus (Mostafa Heidari, 2010) in Coriandrum sativum
(Neffati et al., 2011). Addition of gypsum in Tsunami
affected soil increased the growth rate when compared to
affected soil. Similar results were also observed in
Arabidopsis (Henrikson and Henrikson, 2005) and Oryza
sativa (Mohamed et al., 2007; Zhang et al., 2011).

Fig 1: Effect of Tsunami affected soil on the germination
percentage of Arachis hypogaea on 7
th
day
The tsunami affected soil inhibited the fresh and dry weight
of Arachis hypogeae. The salinity concentration
antagonistically affected shoot dry weight. Reduction in dry
weight depended relatively on the decrease in the length of
the plant. The decrease in dry weight not in proportion to
decrease in the length of the plant. The results are similar to
those reported by Gupta and Srivastava (1989) and Salim
(1991) in Triticale (Mehmet Atak et al., 2006). In relation
to seedlings growth the cotyledons and the embryonic axes
were suppressed by NaCl. The effect is less in distilled
water because of reduced fresh weight resulting from
reduced water absorption (Prada et al., 1995). The
reduction was principally in the embryonic axes, where
large increase in fresh weight was observed in distilled
water when compared to that of NaCl. The fresh weight
increase of embryonic axes in distilled was mainly due to
an increase in tissue water content. This was due to faster
accumulation of ions and minerals and water in the tissue.
The results showed that more aminoacid accumulation in
Tsunami affected plants than the control plants. In response
to changes of osmotic potential in their external
environment, the plants accumulated more free amino acids
in their tissues. Free amino acids increased with increasing
NaCl salinity in Vigna radiata (Somasundaram et al.,
2007). Regarding salinity caused by Tsunami, addition of
gypsum in Tsunami affected soil lowered the free
aminoacids when compared to crop grown in affected soil.
Similar results were observed in groundnut (Girija et al.,
2002). The high accumulation of free aminoacids could be
due to hydrolysis of protein at high saline conditions and
the accumulation was more in shoot than in root and thus
indicating the protease was more active in shoot than
root(Sheoran and Grag, 1978).

Fig 2: Effect of Tsunami affected soil on growth
parameters of Arachis hypogaea on 30
th
day

Fig 3: Effect of Tsunami affected soil on biochemical
constituents of Arachis hypogaea on 30
th
day
Sugar metabolism in plants was found to be affected by
salinity.The accumulation of soluble carbohydrates
implants has been widely reported as a response to salinity
or drought salinity despite a significant decrease in net CO
2

assimilation rate (Murakeozy et al., 2003).Generally sugar
content increase in roots and shoots of barley (Polonenko et
al., 1983). Sucrose is considered to be the primary substrate
for starch synthesis. Increased accumulation of sugar has
66
International Journal of Research in Plant Science 2013; 3(4): 64-67

been reported in many plant species exposed to salinity
such as Olea europaea (Tattini et al., 1996) and Cornus
stonifera (Renault, 2005).

Fig 4: Effect of Tsunami affected soil on photosynthetic
pigments of Arachis hypogaea on30
th
day
Reduced protein level was observed in sorghum (Azooz et
al., 2004); greengram (Anbukarasi, 2005). Addition of
gypsum in Tsunami affected soil th protein content was
increased when compared to affected soil. So the gypsum
treatment along with manure reduce the protein degradation
or increase the protein synthesis in salt stressed caused by
Tsunami in the plants. Similar results were observed in
wheat (Abulsamad, 1993); in cotton (Amuthavalli et al.,
2012).
Proline is thought to be contribute to osmotic adjustment,
detoxification of respective oxygen species and protection
of membrane integrity. In the Tsunami affected soil proline
content increased in both varieties when compared to
control plants. On the other hand, addition of farmyard
manure combined with gypsum in the Tsunami affected
soil decreased the proline content in Arachis hypogaea
when compared to affected soil. Similar findings were
observed in Cassia augustifolia (Anjum et al., 2004); in
pearl millet (Harshal et al., 2003).Exogenous application of
proline protected cell membranes from salt induced
oxidative stress by enhancing activities of various
antioxidants (Yan et al., 2000) and increase catalase
activity in Collectotrichum trifoli (Chen and Dickman,
2005).
Photosynthetic pigments (Chl a, Chl b and carotenoid were
increased in farmyard manure with gypsum treated soil
compare to that of tsunami affected soil. Decreased
chlorophyll were observed in Morus alba (Giridara kumar
et al., 2003). The decrease of chlorophyll is mainly
attributed to the destruction of chlorophyll 'a', which is
considered to be more sensitive to salinity than chlorophyll
'b' (Singh and Dubey, 1995). Reddy and Vora (1986)
reported decrease in both chlorophyll and carotenoid in the
salt sensitive crop species. Salt stress led to degradation of
carotene and formation of zeaxanthin which are involved
in protection against photo inhibition (Sharma and Hall,
1991).
In conclusion, tsunami affected soil significantly decreased
the growth, germination and biochemical components of
Arachis hypogaea, but addition of gypsum in tsunami
affected soil significantly increase the germination, growth
and metabolic activities. However, gypsum played a major
role in mitigating the deleterious effect of salinity.
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Source of support: Nil; Conflict of interest: None declared