Pre-sowing seed treated with Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) assumed to be a potential priming agent to increase the germination, seedling growth and water relation behavior of grain. With this view, a lab investigation was carried out to find out the effect of various PEG concentrations on the germination, seedling growth and water relation behavior of wheat. Seeds of ESWYT-5, ESWYT-6 and ESWYT-7 wheat genotypes and BARI Gom 28 were pre-soaked in water with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% PEG solutions. Results of the study revealed that seed priming enhanced germination, seedling growth and water relation behavior of wheat genotypes. Among four wheat genotypes, ESWYT-5 performed the best regarding germination, seedling growth and water relation behavior where wheat genotypes ESWYT-6 and BARI Gom 28 performed moderately and ESWYT-7 showed consistently poor performance. All the characters showed the best results when wheat seeds treated with 10% PEG solution compared to nonprime and hydro primed seeds and the value decreased gradually with increasing PEG concentration. These results suggest that seed priming had significant effect to boost the germination, seedling growth and water relation behavior of wheat genotypes.

In this study, we established an in vitro regeneration system to maximize the recovery of leafy perilla (Perilla frutescens L. Britton) plantlets as part of developing a molecular biotechnology-based metabolic engineering program for this crop plant. Hypocotyl segments including the apical buds were used as explants for the direct production of shoots without an interim callus phase. The number of shoots produced from the apical buds peaked within 3-4 weeks, and the shoots were subsequently cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with 2 mg l -1 benzylaminopurine (BA). Spontaneous rhizogenesis was observed after 7-10 days of culture on MS media without hormonal additives. The rooted shoots developed into normal plants in soil after hardening on distilled water for 3-4 days. The average plantlet regeneration frequency was higher for the apical buds (64.33%) than for the top (15.66%), middle (4%), and basal (1.33%) segments of the hypocotyls. This regeneration system demonstrates a capacity for high-frequency plantlet recovery and thus should be considered for use in the genetic manipulation of leafy perilla.

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