Wael Ghoraba
The present work aimed to investigate changes in anatomical characteristics of root and stem in NaCl-stressed bean plants, and assessing the role of ascorbic acid to alleviate these changes. The pot experiment was carried out to study the response of presoaked faba bean seeds (Vicia faba cv. Misr 2) in freshly prepared ascorbic acid (50 ppm ≈ 0.3 mM; as recommended dose as described by or distilled water (control) for 4 hrs at natural environmental conditions, salinity caused a deeply tear of the outermost layers of the root in both periderm and cortex zones. In addition, NaCl treatments caused an increase in root cortex width at 150 mM NaCl compared with control. NaCl caused a highly significant decrease in xylem width of either treated plants or untreated with ascorbic acid, but the response was more prominently at high dose of NaCl. NaCl caused a highly significant decrease in xylem width and stem area of salinized plants either treated or not with ascorbic acid, especially at 100 mM NaCl.