Seed priming to alleviate the effect of salinity stress in rice

Abstract

The study to evaluate the effect of seed priming with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), jasmonic acid (JA) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) on seed germination and vigour of three different rice varieties of salt tolerant (TNAU Rice TRY 3), salt sensitive (ADT (R) 49) and moderately tolerant (CO 43) varieties at different salt concentrations (100, 150 & 200 mM) revealed that seed priming with SNP @ 80 µM recorded maximum germination in all the varieties when compared with hydroprimed and unprimed control seeds irrespective of the salt concentrations. The aim of the study was to mitigate the ill-effects of salinity and improves the performance of the seedling, under salt stress condition, and it was evident that seed priming with SNP 80 @ µM was found to be effective for mitigating the effect of salt stress in rice even under higher salt concentrations.