Tolerance to salinity in Cucumis with neutron activation and autoradiography of sodium in seedlings of selected species of the genus

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6943363

Lathrop, B L

Part I. Nineteen species of Cucumis were compared for tolerance to sodium chloride in solution and sand culture. C. sativus L., and C. hardwickii died at 270 meq/I NaCl, while C. melo L. can tolerate up to 340 meq/I. C. myriocarpus, C. ficifolius, C. membranifolius, and C. meeusii are the most tolerant, surviving up to about 500 meq/I NaCl. The initial response of all species to gradually increasing levels of salinization is a bluish-green deepening of foliage color and reduction in growth, followed by intervenal chlorosis of older leaves and more pronounced chlorosis of new growth. Death occurred first in the mesic species in about 12-18 days and was characterized by general wilting and necrosis. In more tolerant species which were generally more xeric and woody, death occurred in about 18-28 days as the leaf blades became necrotic on wilted petioles. Part II. A cyclotron generated proton beam was used to induce a high density thermal neutron flux from a NaI target for conversion of /sup 23/Na/sup 24/ to Na in living and dried seedlings of Cucumis sativus (sensitive to salinity) and C. myriocarpus (tolerant). There was little difference in movement of salt in the living seedlings of the cultivated and wild species of Cucumis during a 10 hour period following neutron activation and before autoradiography. Some suggestion of transport of Na in main vascular bundles occurred during this period in C. myriocarpus. The creation of /sup 24/Na in air-dried seedlings of this taxon that had been salinized also permitted autoradiography of sodium distribution and provided results similar to in vivo studies.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Davis (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6943363
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
SEEDLINGS
TOLERANCE
SODIUM CHLORIDES
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
AUTORADIOGRAPHY
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
NEUTRON REACTIONS
SALINITY
SODIUM 23
SODIUM 24
TRACER TECHNIQUES
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
BARYON REACTIONS
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHLORIDES
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
HADRON REACTIONS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
NUCLEI
NUCLEON REACTIONS
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
SECONDS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
SODIUM ISOTOPES
STABLE ISOTOPES
520101* - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- Radiometric Techniques- (-1989)