Mitigation of Salinity Stress on Chickpea Germination by Salicylic Acid Priming

Abstract

Salinity is a global problem that threatens chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivation in all stagesfrom germination to maturity. Also, salt-affected areas in the World are increasing by the day. Germinationis one of the primary stages affecting plant growth and seed yield. Thus, germination performance ofseeds has a vital role in vegetative and productive stages. Seed priming, a cheap and easily applicabletechnique, improves the germination performance by regulating enzymatic reactions and controllingwater intake. Seed priming is controlled hydration of seeds soaked in a solution that has low osmoticpotential to start the germination metabolism without elongation of radical. The aim of the study was toinvestigate the effects of different priming treatments on germination traits of chickpea under salineconditions. Three levels of salinity (control, 50 mM and 100 mM NaCl) and 5 priming treatments (nonprimed, hydro-priming, 0.1 mM, 0.2 mM and 0.3 mM salicylic acid) were used in the study. Germinationpercentage (GP), mean germination time (MGT), germination rate (GR), germination index (GI) andcoefficient of uniformity of germination (CUG) were varied between 80.7-98.3%, 1.40-2.67 day, 38.1-75.7,37.5-72.5 and 0.3-0.7, respectively. Although all treatments caused significant positive effects, the 0.2 mMSA mostly improved the germination traits in the study. Also, it was determined that 0.2 mM salicylic acidpriming is the threshold for chickpea and higher concentrations have inhibitory effects on the germinationprocess.