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Synthetic fertilizers are widely employed in agriculture relative to biofertilizers. Long-term use affects soil fertility, plant vigor, human and livestock health, and the soil microbial community. Seaweeds were employed as biofertilizers in sustainable agriculture to overcome this issue and boost the agricultural productivity. Therefore, the current study investigates the effect of wheat seeds priming with the aqueous extracts of Ulva linza or Corallina officinalis seaweeds at various concentrations (5, 10, 15, 20, and 30%). Wheat grains were primed with seaweed extracts and grown in petri dishes, and the germination rate, growth attributes, physiological parameters, cytological traits, and molecular analyses were evaluated. The physico-chemical characterization revealed that U. linza possessed higher levels of ash, soluble proteins, and sugars, as well as essential macronutrients and amino acids, than C. officinalis. Seedling growth parameters, physiological characteristics, and mitotic index all showed a substantial increase in low concentrations of both extracts when compared to the control. Higher concentrations, on the other hand, exhibited an inhibitory effect as well as certain chromosomal abnormalities. In the treated seedlings, new proteins were expressed, which could be owing to the activity of bioactive components in the extracts. As compared to untreated seedlings, PCR-RAPD analysis utilizing five markers revealed that both seaweed extracts triggered low and high molecular weight DNA fragments, as well as fragments specific to each extract. Seaweed extracts could be employed as an environmentally friendly and soil-safe alternative to typical chemical fertilizers.

Salinity is a critical issue impairing the growth and productivity of most crop species through the mediated ionic and osmotic imbalances. As a way forward, the current study was tailored to elucidate the capacity of sulfur nanoparticles (SNPs) to amend salinity consequences on growth and physio-biochemical attributes of wheat. In a controlled experiment, wheat seeds were primed for 12 h with either 100 lM SNPs or deionized water then sown in plastic pots containing 5 kg clay-sand mixture (2:1 w/w). A week later, pots received NaCl (100 or 200 mM) as a sole treatment or in combination with SNPs and after three weeks the data of morph-bio-physiological traits were recorded. Salinity decreased growth rate, pigmentation, protein, amino acids, cysteine, ascorbate, flavonoids and phenolics content in wheat leaves. Plants pre-treated with 100 lM SNPs showed improved growth rate, pigmentation, nitrogen metabolism as well as non-enzymatic antioxidant contents as compared with salinized treatments. Neither salt nor SNP treatments affected photosynthetic performance rate (Fv/fm), however both treatments induced glutathione content. SNP treatment retrieved the undue excessive activities of catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) besides the increased level of proline caused by salt stress. Likewise, 100 lM SNPs rebalanced the declined nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents and decreased sodium uptake caused by salinity. On the whole, priming with 100 lM SNPs improved photosynthetic pigments, nitrogen metabolism, antioxidant status and ionic relations contributing to the enhancement of growth attributes in wheat under salinity.