Acetic acid: a cost-effective agent for mitigation of seawater-induced salt toxicity in mung bean

Abstract The current study sought the effective mitigation measure of seawater-induced damage to mung bean plants by exploring the potential roles of acetic acid (AA). Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that foliar application of AA under control conditions improved mung bean growth, which was interlinked to enhanced levels of photosynthetic rate and pigments, improved water status and increased uptake of K + , in comparison with water-sprayed control. Mung bean plants exposed to salinity exhibited reduced growth and biomass production, which was emphatically correlated with increased accumulations of Na + , reactive oxygen species and malondialdehyde, and impaired photosynthesis, as evidenced by PCA and heatmap clustering. AA supplementation ameliorated the toxic effects of seawater, and improved the growth performance of…