Authors
1 M.Sc student of Agronomy, University of Birjand
2 Faculty member, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Birjand
Abstract
In order to study the influence of seed treatment with glycinebetaine (GB) on alleviating the negative effect of salinity stress at germination and early seedling growth stage of corn, a factorial experiment was conducted based on CRD with three replications. Seeds were soaked for 24 hours at different GB levels including 0, 2, 4, 8 and 16 mM and then were placed in petri dish. To apply salinity stress, NaCl solutions at different levels (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 dS.m-1) were added to the Petri dishes. Results indicated that all measured parameters showed a significant negative response to salinity. Seed treatment with GB, however, caused a significant increase in germination percentage and length and fresh weight of radicle and coleoptile. This experiment showed that seed treatment with GB had a positive effect on reducing the effect of salinity stress and using GB proved its positive effect up to the salinity level of 10 dS. m-1. Comparison of the means showed that GB concentration of 4 mM provided the best situation in alleviating the salinity stress at germination stage and was in the highest statistical level. It is notable that GB concentration of 16 mM caused a negative impact on germination characteristics.
Keywords
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