Wheat is a crop of global significance and is a staple food of millions of people. Gibberellic acid (GA3) and ascorbic acid
(AsA) are considered as the most effective exogenous protectants which may alleviate the harmful effect of salinity stress. The
laboratory experiment was conducted with four replications. Seeds of wheat cultivar GW-496 were soaked in distilled water
(control), three concentrations of ascorbic acid (AsA) viz., (50, 100 and 150 mg L-1
) and three concentrations of gibberellic acid
(GA3) viz., (150, 200 and 250 mg L-1
) solutions for 2 hr. Three concentrations NaCl (50 mM, 75 mM and 100 mM) were added
to induce salinity stress, whereas distilled water was provided as control. Root/shoot fresh weight ratio, Root/shoot dry weight
ratio, total carbohydrates, total soluble protein and protein profile were measured on 11th day after germination. It was observed
that salinity stress at all three concentrations showed progressive reduction in all measured parameters however, the reduction
was most prominent at severe stress level (100 mM NaCl). Salt stress negatively affected protein synthesis and less number of
protein bands/lanes were found under mild and moderate stress condition then severe stress condition. In addition, under NaCl
treatment an appearance of a new band of Rm value 0.125 under saline condition. Ascorbic acid @ 100 mg L-1
was found
efficient in enhancing all measured parameters and also increased the number of bands in protein profile with the appearance of
five new protein bands of different Rm values three bands of Rm value 0.116 and two bands of Rm value 0.168 for the treatments
under mild and moderate stress condition. For gibberellic acid, the highest concentration (250 mg L-1
) proved most efficient in
enhancing all given parameters. GA3 @ 250 mg L-1
also enhanced the number of bands and appearance 11 new protein bands
were also observed. Hence, this study proves the role of these bio-stimulators in ameliorating the deleterious effect of salinity
stress.