Effects of salt stress levels on five maize (Zea mays L.) cultivars at germination stage

Abstract

To investigation the effects of salt stress levels (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 mM NaCl) on five maize (Zea mays L.) cultivars at germination stage, this study was performed at Ardabil, Iran in 2011. The results showed that in all cultivars, as the salt concentration increased, both germination percentage and germination index decreased significantly. Increasing salt concentration affected the early seedling growth in all cultivars. There were differences in responses of cultivars to salt stress. For all salt concentrations, Golden west had the highest germination percentage and germination index. Salt concentration decreased shoot and root dry weight. BC678 and Golden west had the lowest reduction of shoot and root dry weight, respectively. OS 499 had the highest reduction of shoot and root dry weight in this study; Golden west showed better results than the other cultivars in respect to salt tolerance index. The results show that Golden west was the cultivar to be recommended for saline soils. OS499 was more sensitive to salinity in this study.

Osmolyte accumulation and antioxidant metabolism during germination of vigorous maize seeds subjected to water deficit

“…There was a drastic decline in the percentage of normal seedlings for HT2 at -0.9 MPa, likely as a result of the damage to different physiological processes as a function of the lower water availability in the substrate. Similar trends have been reported by other researchers, who found a significant decline in the germination capacity of maize seeds as a function of reduced osmotic potential caused by polyethylene glycol 6000, helping to identify drought-resistant maize genotypes (Khayatnezhad, Gholamin, Jamaati-e-Somarin, & Zabihi-e-Mahmoodabad, 2010;Vaz-de-Melo et al, 2012;Abreu et al, 2014;Partheeban, Chandrasekhar, Jeyakumar, Ravikesavan, & Gnanam, 2017), as observed in the present study.In hydration with water, hybrid HT1 achieved protrusion in 36 hours and HT2 achieved protrusion in 48 hours; at -0.3 MPa, HT1 obtained protrusion in 48 hours and HT2 in 96 hours; and at -0.9 MPa, protrusion occurred in 72 and 168 hours for HT1 and HT2, respectively. According to Prazeres and Coelho (2017), root protrusion was achieved in less time in the high vigor hybrid (HT1) than its low vigor counterpart (HT2) for all of the osmotic potentials.…”

Effect of Planting Season and Variety in some Growth Characters of Corn

“…The reading of chlorophyll (Table 8) was significantly superior, with an average of 56.03 SPAD units for the spring season, over the autumn season, which gave an average of 51.50 SPAD units. The reason for this is the increase in leaf area in the spring season (Table 6), which helped activate photosynthesis rates [30], because the increase in chlorophyll is associated with an increase in leaf area, which reflected in an increase in the efficiency of photosynthesis [12] , on the other hand, the decrease in the number of plant leaves (Table 5) in the spring season led to an increase in chlorophyll [31]. Perhaps the reason for this is the competition between the leaves for this molecule.…”

“…The diameter of the stem has an important role in the root uptake by transport through wood elements [9].The diameter of the stem is affected by the environmental and structural factors of the cultivated plant, and is associated with other plant characteristics, a highly significant positive correlation was found between the diameter of the stem and the number of leaves in the spring season and positive not significant in the fall season [10]. The leaf area is one of the important field characteristics, as it is the basis that supports the process of photosynthesis with high efficiency [11].Chlorophyll has an important role in increasing plant growth characteristics , because it is directly responsible for the continuation of the photosynthesis process [12]. A study conducted by [13] for sweet corn in the autumn and spring seasons indicated that the plant height in the spring season was superior than the autumn season, while it was observed that there were no significant differences in flowering for the two seasons.…”