Occurrence of salt stress with the soil borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cepa (FOC) are potential threat to the crop yield. This investigation reports effect of the concurrent stresses (salinity and FOC) on morpho-physiological and yield attributes in onion. In vitro growth tests revealed proliferation of FOC biomass at different levels of salinity (2-8 dS m-1). A greenhouse pot experiment with the proposed levels of salinity (2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 dS m-1) in combination with FOC inoculation showed more drastic effect of combined stress on disease severity, plant growth and bulb as compared to the individual stress. In general, osmotic potential, total chlorophyll content, membrane stability index and total protein content of the leaf were decreased, while total phenolics were increased due to the given stress/s. Total sugar content decreased due to effect of the individual stress of FOC, while it increased under the individual stress of salinity and in combination with FOC. FOC infection did not change activity of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), while it improved peroxidase (POX) and phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) and decreased catalase (CAT) activity. Activities of POX and PPO increased, however PAL and CAT declined under individual as well as simultaneous stress of salinity and FOC. The research work concluded that FOC will be a more severe disease threat for onion cultivation in saline soils.
Keywords: Antioxidant enzyme; Basal rot; Physiology and biochemistry; Salt stress; Salt tolerant fungus.