effect of salt stress on acid and alkaline phosphatase activities of embryo axis during early stages of seed germination in two bread wheat (triticum aestivum) cultivars

water and soil salinity are two of the most important limiting factors in crop production. phosphatase enzymes are widely found in plants. phosphatase enzymes are responsible for de-phosphorylation of organic phosphate and altering it to mineral phosphate. germination experiments were conducted using two bread wheat cultivars, namely, iniya66 and ghods along with application of different nacl potentials. salt stress significantly reduced all the germination traits. for assessing phosphatase enzymes activities in salt resistant and salt sensitive cultivars, an experiment was done under salinity stress conditions. the experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design of three replications. treatments included cultivar, salinity and imbibition time. results indicated that salinity stress enhanced phosphatase enzymes activities (acid & alkaline) and by increase in stress level to -12 bars, phosphatase enzymes activities increased. enzyme activity was higher in salt resistant cultivar (iniya66) than in the sensitive one (ghods). acid and alkaline phosphatase activities in both cultivars (salt resistant and non resistant) increased with increasing of seed imbibition time. the greatest activity of the enzyme was detected after 18 hours of seed imbibition.