EFFECT OF CHITOSAN PRETREATMENT ON SEEDLING GROWTH AND ANTIOXIDANT ENZYME ACTIVITY OF SAFFLOWER (Carthamus tinctorius L.) CULTIVARS UNDER SALINE CONDITIONS

Today, salinity has become a major problem in agricultural areas all over the world. However, plants develop a defense mechanism against stress by increasing various antioxidant enzyme activities in order to tolerate salt and other stress factors. In addition to this mechanism, the effects of stress are attempted to be reduced by various applications that increase enzyme activities. One of these applications is chitosan application. In this study, 4 different doses of chitosan pretreatment (0 (control) (Ch1), 0.2% (Ch2), 0.4% (Ch3), 0.6% (Ch4)) were applied to safflower cultivars (Balm, Linas, Remzibey) for 4 hours under laboratory conditions. For each chitosan application, 50 seeds were germinated under saline conditions (0 (control) (S1), 50 mM (S2), 100 mM (S3), 150 mM (S4)) in petri dish. As a result of the study, it has been determined that chitosan applications provide increases in seedling length, root length, seedling wet weight, root wet weight, germination percentage, total chlorophyll, carotenoid, beta-carotene and lycopene parameters. In the study, it was determined that the most effective chitosan application was Ch3 in terms of the properties examined in stress conditions. According to the research results, it was concluded that chitosan can be considered as a natural material that can positively affect in the defense mechanism of plants under stress conditions.