Growth and Physiology of in Vitro Planted Seedlings of Flax (Linum usitatissimum) Under Aluminum Stress

Aluminium stress is one of the key factors for crop yield along with other abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, extreme temperature and light in acidic soils. Due to natural and anthropogenic activities heavy metal pollution is increasing daily. Hence it is must to know the effects of heavy metals in depth on crop growth and development ultimately yield levels. The main aim of this work was to examine the toxic effect of Aluminium under in vitro growth conditions. Our results clearly demonstrated that Al reduces root growth, shoot growth, fresh weight, dry weight and total Chlorophyll content of Flax seedlings. MDA contents in tissues were assayed. The results suggested that the maximum growth inhibition was at higher concentrations of Al. In this experiment with increasing Al treatment resulted in a significant increase in MDA level, an indicator of lipid peroxidation.