Seed priming improves the germination and growth rate of melon seedlings under saline stress

Abstract

The germination and growth of melon (Cucumis melo L.) plants can be severely affected by excess salts in the soil or irrigation water; however, negative effects of salt stress can be attenuated using appropriate methods of seed priming. Thus, effects of osmopriming as inducer of salt stress tolerance in melon seeds exposed to salinity levels were investigated in this study. Seeds were soaked for 22 h at 25 °C in the dark in distilled water (hydropriming) or 0.5% KNO3 solution (osmopriming), and after drying, were distributed in plastic boxes with blotter paper containing different NaCl solutions prepared with osmotic pressure of 0.0 MPa (control), -0.3 MPa (mild stress), and -0.6 MPa (severe stress). Unprimed dry seeds were taken as control. The plastic boxes were kept into a seed germinator, at 25 °C for 14 days. A completely randomized design in a 3 × 3 factorial schemes with four replicates of 25 seeds was used. Results showed that the seed priming with water and KNO3 may be successfully applied on melon seeds to alleviate the adverse effects of saline stress in initial stages of plant growth. However, under severe salt stress conditions, hydropriming should be used because it results in higher germination and initial growth rate of the seedlings when compared to the osmopriming. Use of unprimed seeds should not be adopted in cultivation areas affected by salinity because they result in low germination rate and reduced initial plant growth.

Seed Priming with Sorghum Water Extract Improves the Performance of Camelina (Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz.) under Salt Stress

“…Moreover, seed priming is also used to attenuate salinity stress for better growth and plant stand establishment. However, research regarding the effect of seed priming on seedling elongation is still contradictory [ 54 , 55 ]. In the present study, higher plant growth was observed while measuring the growth traits such as shoot length, root length, shoot dry weight, and root dry weight ( Figure 2 ).…”

“…Ahmad et al [ 51 ] also reported the higher shoot length, shoot and root fresh and dry weight with seed priming with 1% SWE. This increase was quite related to the activation and synthesis of several enzymes, proteins, nucleic acids, and ATP build-up and effective repair of cytoplasmic membrane damage [ 55 , 56 ].…”

Protection of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum L.) seedlings from salinity stress following seed priming with L-methionine and casein hydrolysate

“…HP of many seeds, for example, Medicago sativa (Li et al, 2017), fenugreek (Mahmoudi et al, 2019) and melon (Oliveira et al, 2019), is known to be beneficial for germination and seedling growth under salinity stress. In this study, HP of Italian ryegrass seeds resulted only in a higher GP than non-primed seeds incubated in 60 mM NaCl, but had no protective effect on root growth of 4-d-old seedlings compared with that of those from unprimed seeds incubated in 60 and 90 mM NaCl.…”

Hydropriming Improves Germination and Plant Recovery During Embryo Rescue of Wild Banana Musa acuminata var. tomentosa

“…The hydropriming treatment of 1-day soaking also demonstrated that subsequent plantlet growth was also improved as indicated by more vigorous growth as indicated by shoots height and number of leaves, while the number of shoots and number of roots stays the same. During the immersion period, several physiological processes, including activation and synthesis of some enzymes, proteins, and amino acids, repair and increase in ATP synthesis, and repair of plasma membranes in the soaked seeds will begin to develop, increasing the relative growth rate of the seedling produced (Oliveira et al, 2019). Several studies have shown that soaking seeds not only promotes germination but also increases seedling growth.…”