The Effect of Various Levels of Salt Stress, on Seed Germination of Blue Panicumand the Possibility of Alleviating Damage by Lyso-phosphatidylethanolamine (LPE)

Abstract

Panicum antidotale Retz (Blue Panicum) is considered as a new forage crop recently introduced to Egypt, which emphasizes the need for an assessment of its tolerance to salinity stresses. The objectives of the study were to (1) investigate the effect of various levels of salt stress on seed germination, (2) define the threshold of damage by increasing concentration of salt stress, (3) determine the possibility of enhancing seed germination by pretreatment of seeds with lisophos and (4) examine the possibility of synergism between lisophos and low salinity level as to alleviate salt to germinate at certain a concentration of lisophos. Results showed that at a certain extent, there was a synergistic effect between salt concentrations and the percentage of seed germination. Since the soil content with NaCl of 1000 or 3000 ppm led to a significant increase in the germination (61.75% and 53.95% respectively) as compared with the control (47.70%). The influence of various used concentrations (0 ppm, 5 ppm, 10 ppm, 20 ppm and 40 ppm) of the natural compound lisophos on germination percentage of the pretreating seeds revealed that the control seeds had the least germination percentage among all treatments. To check the possibility of alleviating salinity stress injury, lisophos used concentrations at 5 ppm and 20ppm, were used to protect the seed then seeds were exposed to salinity stress concentrations. Data showed that there was a significant increase in the germination percentage of Blue Panicum by the application of lisophos at 5 ppm to salt exposed seeds at 5000 ppm. On other hand data indicated that there was an adverse effect on the germination percentage by applying lisophos at 20 ppm in the presence of salinity at 3000 ppm or 5000 ppm since the highest percentage was obtained with the control. This study may add valuable information about Panicum antidotale tolerance to salinity as well as capability and potentialty of lithophosphatidyl ethanol amine (lisophosph or LPE) as growth regulators in stimulating germination of Panicum antidotale seeds and alleviating the damage of salinity to the ability of seeds to germinate.