ANTIMUTAGENICS EFFECTS OF STIGMASTEROL ON TWO SALT STRESSED Lupinus termis CULTIVARS

The present work was carried out to examine the effect of exogenous application of stigmasterol on mitotic cell division; some growth parameters and protein banding pattern using two salt stressed Lupinus termis cultivars (cv. Giza 1 and Giza 2). On the other hand, the mutagenic and the antimutagenic effect of stigmasterol were studied using Allium cepa assay. The results of germination percentage revealed that cv. Giza 2 had higher response to the interaction between salinity and stigmasterol than cv. Giza 1. Also, highly significant inhibition in growth parameters (shoot and root growth) by increasing the salinity stress in Giza 1 than Giza 2 and this inhibition was significantly alleviated with stigmasterol treatment. Salinity induced a considerable variation in the protein patterns among these cultivars. These changes have been appeared in the novel expression of some polypeptides, the absence of the other and the over expression of a third class of polypeptides. Treatment with sodium chloride (100 and 200 Mm) has mitoclassic impact on cell division. Few types of mitotic abnormalities were induced in different treatments. Stigmasterol treatments were minimize the inhibition effect of NaCl and showed a considerable increase in the mitotic index. This study detected that stigmasterol has antimutagenic effect against sodium chloride that induced chromosomal aberrations in Allium cepa root meristematic cells.