Abstract
Five cultivars of tomato having different levels of salt stress tolerance were exposed to different treatments of NaCl (0, 3 and 6gL−1) and ZnO-NPs (0, 15 and 30mgL−1). Treatments with NaCl at both 3 and 6gL−1 suppressed the mRNA levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) genes in all cultivars while plants treated with ZnO-NPs in the presence of NaCl, showed increments in the mRNA expression levels. This indicated that ZnO-NPs had a positive response on plant metabolism under salt stress. Superior expression levels of mRNA were observed in the salt tolerant cultivars, Sandpoint and Edkawy while the lowest level was detected in the salt sensitive cultivar, Anna Aasa. SDS–PAGE showed clear differences in patterns of protein expression among the cultivars. A negative protein marker for salt sensitivity and ZnO-NPs was detected in cv. Anna Aasa at a molecular weight of 19.162kDa, while the tolerant cultivar Edkawy had two positive markers at molecular weights of 74.991 and 79.735kDa.