Table 1.

Growth, physiological and biochemical responses of IR-64 plants subjected to different treatments (E+/E−: Presence/absence of Fusarium sp.; S+/S−: Presence/absence of Salinity stress) (^a50 day old plants; ^b10 day old seedlings). One-way ANOVA was done separately for E−S- and E+S− and for E−S+ and E+S+. Results are the mean of three replication ± SEm. Asteriks indicate significant difference between means within each of the above pairs of comparison at P < 0.05.

Treatments/Parameters	E−S−	E+S−	E−S+	E+S+
Growth parameters
Tiller number/planta	6.83 ± 0.490	11.17 ± 1.705	3.5 ± 0.235	10.5 ± 0.848*
Total biomass (g/plant)a	19.7 ± 0.567	25.5 ± 1.479*	11.6 ± 0.139	15.6 ± 0.597*
Physiological parameters
Total chlorophyll content (mg g−1 fw)a	0.05 ± 0.007	0.11 ± 0.007*	0.01 ± 0.001	0.04 ± 0.007*
Assimilation rate (μ mol m−2 s−1)a	12.97 ± 0.808	15.67 ± 0.533	8.80 ± 1.031	13.97 ± 0.998*
Stomatal conductance (m mol m−2 s−1)a	0.27 ± 0.046	0.25 ± 0.046	0.11 ± 0.026	0.16 ± 0.031
Transpiration rate (mol m−2 s−1)a	3.84 ± 0.410	3.15v0.010	2.11 ± 0.332	2.69 ± 0.363
Biochemical parameters
SOD activityb	50.7 ± 1.142	46.57 ± 7.730	43.88 ± 5.999	25.69 ± 7.627
MDA content (µ mol g−1)b	7.49 ± 0.049	9.28 ± 0.049*	11.07 ± 0.049	12.11 ± 0.049*
Proline content (µ mol g−1)b	0.17 ± 0.024	0.07 ± 0.002*	0.60 ± 0.000	0.31 ± 0.000*