Effect of salt and drought stress on acid phosphatase activities in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) explants under in vitro culture

Acid phosphatase is wildly found in plants. This enzyme has intra and extra cellular activity. For instance, it dephosphorylase organic phosphate and change it to inorganic phosphate. However, acid phosphatase activity is increased by salt and osmotic stress. In this experiments, calluses were produced from invitro grown explants of Medicago sativa cv. Yazdi and cv. Hamedani under aseptic condition on MS medium containing NAA, 2,4-D. Then calluses and seedling were transferred to the same medium containing 0,0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1% NaCl and 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10% Mannitol as osmotic stress. After 2 weeks acid phosphatse activities were measured and data statistically analyzed. Clearly acid phosphatase activities was increased by salt and drought stress in both cultivars, and the difference between two genotype indicating that the acid phosphatase activity is highly genotype dependent. (African Journal of Biotechnology: 2003 2(5): 133-135)