Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EVALUATION OF PHYSIOLOGICAL INDICES FOR SALT TOLERANCE OF LIPO CHITOOLIGOSACCHARIDE PRIMED MAIZE

D. Udhaya Nandhini and E. Somasundaram

Abstract

Seed germination is a critical factor in seedling establishment and for subsequent plant health and vigor which is drastically affected due to higher salt concentration. Growing of crop with salt tolerance at early stages through seed priming is one of the rising trends. The study was conducted with the objective of seed priming with lipo chitooligosaccharide (LCO) nod factors (4 mL/kg) and without priming on maize seedling growth which is exposed to different levels of salinity (0,2,4,6, 8 and 10 dS m-1). The experiment was laid out in a factorial completely randomized design. As a consequence of salinity the physiological indices were negatively influenced, however nod factor treated maize seeds, had relatively higher germination percentage, shoot length, root length, shoot dry weight, root dry weight, germination stress tolerance index (GSI), shoot length stress tolerance index (SLSI), root length stress tolerance index (RLSI) and biomass stress tolerance index (BSI). Correlation analysis revealed positive relationships between physiological indices. The results indicated that the aforesaid indices thus, seed priming with nod factor (4 mL/kg) improve the resistance to salinity at seedling stage.