TITLE:
Amelioration of Salinity Stress in Maize Seed Germination and Seedling Growth Attributes through Seed Priming
AUTHORS:
Lucky Akter, Oli Ahmed Fakir, Md. Khairul Alam, Mahbub Ul Islam, Priyanka Chakraborti, Md. Jahangir Alam, Md. Harunur Rashid, Mahfuza Begum, Md. Abdul Kader
KEYWORDS:
Germination, Halopriming, Hydropriming, Osmopriming, Seedling Attributes
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Soil Science,
Vol.8 No.5,
May
31,
2018
ABSTRACT: Germination of seeds
and growth of seedling respond to seed priming as priming can guard the damage
of salinity stress. A study conducted in
the net house of the Department of Agronomy, BAU, Mymensingh during the period
from November 2012 to April 2013 investigated the ameliorative effect of seed
priming on seed germination and seedling attributes of maize under various
salinity stress conditions. The experiment consisted of five seed priming and
four salinity levels (NaCl) and laid out in a Completely Randomized Design
(CRD) with three replications. Seed germination and seedling attributes of
maize varied due to salinity stress and priming. The highest seed germination
(95.7%) was recorded when no stress was imposed under hydropriming (48 hours).
The germination of seeds performed even well (92.3%) when treated with
hydropriming (48 hours) and NaCl@0.25 dS·m-1 which was followed by
hydropriming (24 hours) under no salinity imposed and NaCl@0.25 dS·m-1 salinity. Hydropriming for 48 hours without
salt stress performed the best on number of leaves seedling-1 (8), shoot length (28.2 cm), root length (14.5 cm), fresh weight (100.8 g) and
dry weight of seedling (50.3 g). The germination and seedling growth parameters
were reduced with the increase in salinity levels irrespective of priming while
all seed priming treatments showed ameliorative effects. However, reduction in
seed germination and seedling attributes were
minimal with hydropriming for 48 hours. The results revealed that
priming of maize seeds could be used for amelioration of salinity stress and
hydropriming for 48 hours appeared as the best seed priming treatment.