Influence of Salicylic Acid on salinity stress tolerance by seed priming and foliar application on Maize (Zea Mays)
Influence of Salicylic Acid on salinity stress tolerance by seed priming and foliar application on Maize (Zea Mays)
AAMIR MAHMOOD1, ZAHOOR AHMAD SAJID* & SHEZA AYAZ KHILJI2
ABSTRACT
This study was intended to measure the impact of salicylic acid (SA) on maize under salt stress. For this purpose salinity effect on various morpho-physiological and biochemical attributes of plants was analyzed by launching a petri dish and pot experiment. The analysis spread out in a totally block design (randomized) with ten replicates for each salt (0 and 120 mM NaCl) and SA (0, 0.1, 0.5 and 1mM) treatment. The commercially available cultivar (cv. Faisal) of maize was planted in earthen pots for 15 days. After fifteen days of growth, seedlings were irrigated with saline water (120 mM NaCl) and SA was applied for 60 days simultaneously. To observe the germination, seed were also primed with same concentrations in petri dishes. After 60 days on final treatment harvesting was carried out, leaf samples were taken for analyzing biochemical attributes (protein contents, antioxidants enzyme activates). A decrease in seed germination percentage from 95.22 (at control) to 25.34% (at 120 mM salt stress) and shoot length from 86.12 (at control) to 42.36 cm (at 120 mM salt stress) was observed. Similar decreasing pattern of growth was observed in case of pot grown plants after 60 days. The results suggested that salt stress drastically reduced length of shoot and root, fresh / dry weight and leaf area and antioxidant enzyme activities while the use of 0.5 mM concentration of SA greatly made good progress in all these growth and biochemical parameters. Production of antioxidant compounds under salt stress is accelerated under the influence of SA. So it causes modifications in antioxidant compounds and hence increases salt tolerance under saline conditions.
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