ALLEVIATION OF SALINITY STRESS IN LETTUCE DURING GERMINATION BY SEED PRIMING

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Vegetable Research Division, Horticulture Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Egypt.

2 Vegetable Crops Seed Production and Technology Dept., Horticulture Res. Inst., Agric. Res. Center, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

Using seed priming as a tool to overcome salinity stress conditions on lettuce  Lactuca sativa  L.  (White Paris cv.) was studied. Seeds were primed in 5 different priming agents (PEG, KNO3, NaCl, CaCl2, Mannitol) plus the control treatment (without priming) then germination under laboratory conditions using different salinity levels, i.e. 0.00, 1000, 3000, 5000 and 7000 ppm was evaluated .
Results indicated that primed seeds had a higher germination percentage than unprimed seeds under saline stress regardless of priming agent. Seed priming also reduced days required to 50% germination and promoted rapid and uniform germination under adverse conditions. Germination percentage and germination performance index were decreased with increasing saline stress while, uniformity of germination  and days required to 50% germination  were increased with increasing salinity levels. The low salinity level of 1000 ppm enhanced seed germination and seedling growth
Lettuce seed germination showed high response to seed priming under salinity conditions; the most effective agents were CaCl2 , PEG and Mannitol.
It could be concluded that seed priming agents have promotional effects on lettuce  seed germination under salinity stress conditions

Keywords

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics