Comparative Salinity Stress Response in Cultivar and Mutant Plants

Both commercial cultivar and mutant line seeds were planted in pots filled with a soil mixture of peat moss and perlite in a 1:2 ratio (v/v). The pots were placed in a growth chamber with a 16-h light/8-h dark photoperiod, an irradiance of 500 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹, and a temperature of 26°C for 28 days. After 2 weeks of germination, irrigation was done on 14-day-old seedlings with a solution containing 1/10 Hoagland and 125 mM NaCl for 2 weeks, with a 3-day interval between waterings (Figure 2). Leaf samples were collected from the seventh-generation mutants and their parent plants (control) for biochemical and molecular analysis. For qPCR, harvesting of the plants was done at 0 and 2 h after treatment, and leaf samples were collected 28 days after treatment. These samples were stored at −80°C after freezing in liquid nitrogen for further procedure of RNA extraction.