Abstract
The study was conducted to determine whether salt tolerance could be induced in wheat at emergence stage by seed priming. Different seed priming techniques used were, soaking of seeds for 24h in distilled water, hardening for 12h (one cycle), matriconditioning with pressmud for 24h and halopriming with 100 mol m-3 CaCl2, 50 mol m-3 NaCl, 25 mol m-3 Ca(NO3)2 for 24h. Both primed and nonprimed seeds were subjected to 15dS/cm salinity under controlled conditions. Although all priming agents were effective in decreasing the adverse effects of salt stress on wheat at emergence stage. Hydropriming and halopriming with NaCl treatments proved to be more effective since the seed primed with these treatments had significantly lower mean emergence time, higher shoot and root length, dry weight of seedlings and E50 than those treated with other salts or hardening or matriconditioning. Except halopriming (CaCl2) all presowing seed treatments cause a decrease in electrolyte leakage as compared to that in non-primed seeds even after 24 hours of soaking period. Hardening induced maximum decrease in electrolyte leakage while an increase in electrolyte leakage was observed by 50 mol m -3 CaCl2 treatment. It is concluded that priming of seed with distilled water or NaCl induces physiological changes in the seed against salt stress conditions and can be used to induce salinity tolerance in wheat.
