<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: HI" lang="EN-GB">Physiological and proteomic changes in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Azolla microphylla</i> roots upon exposure to salinity</span>

101-106<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" hi"="" lang="EN-GB">Salinity stress affects adversely to the plants, resulting in their growth inhibition. In this article, we describe changes in dry wt, root length, ion content and proteome in the roots of Azolla microphylla exposed to salinity (0.5%). The exposed plants exhibited shorter roots as compared to their control. The sodium content of exposed roots was increased, whereas the potassium content did not show any significant and appreciable change. Of the approx 350 protein spots detected using 2-dimensional electrophoresis, 32 spots indicated significant changes. Seven of these 32 proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF-MS/MS analysis and were found to have homology with pyruvate phosphate dikinase, putative ABC transporter, AAA-ATPase, DNA topoisomerase, Hxlr, Bip and Clpb proteins etc. These identified proteins are general stress proteins and their down regulation is associated with the sensitivity of plants to salinity. </span