Effects of electromagnetic field radiation on inducing physiological and biochemical changes in Satureja bachtiarica L.

As organisms exposed to various abiotic and biotic environmental impacts, plants are able to recognize and respond to their surrounding environment with high specificity. Electromagnetic field radiation is an important effective stress factor on growth and development of plants. Our research focused on plants grown from wet pretreated seeds with low frequency electromagnetic field exposure comparing them with the control. Three replicates were used in the experiment with 30 seeds in each sample. The treatment wet seeds, were spread on the moist filter paper in Petri dishes before they were placed between parallel coils of electromagnetic radiation generator and were exposed by a magnitude of 1mT, for 2hr. Control seeds were placed between coils under similar conditions but not connected to the power. Morphological comparison of the treated and control samples showed that the percentage of seed germination and average root length of the treatment plants increased, but the difference in root length was not significant. A significant decrease in the mean shoot length, leaf area, and fresh and dry weight was observed. Also, electromagnetic radiation exposure caused significant decrease in the rate of Chlorophylla and chlorophyll b. However, carotenoid and activity of non-enzymatic antioxidant content in treatment samples significantly increased in comparison with control plants.