Effects of sodium nitroprusside on physiological characteristics of oat seedling under salt stress

Effects of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) on physiology response of 3 Avena sativa cultivars seedling including Qingyan No.1, Qingyin No.2 and Lena to 150 mmol·L-1 NaCl stress were studied by measuring the contents of chlorophyll and malondialdehyde (MDA) and the activities of antioxidant enzymes.The results showed that application of different SNP concentrations (0.05, 0.10 and 0.20 mmol·L-1) after NaCl stress treatment improved the activities of SOD, POD and CAT and the contents of chlorophyll and reduced MDA contents in all of the three studied oat cultivars compared with salt stress seedling without SNP which indicated that SNP can relieve the damages of salt stress on oat seedlings. However, these relieve effects depended on the SNP concentration and cultivars so that the effects of 0.10 mmol·L-1 SNP treatment were best and Qingyin No.2 performed best.