Enhancement of Morphological and Physiological Performance of Zea mays L. under Saline Stress Using ZnO Nanoparticles and 24-Epibrassinolide Seed Priming

Salinity is one of the most devastating environmental factors limiting crop productivity worldwide. Therefore, our study investigates effect seed priming with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs: 0, 50, and 100 mg L−1), 24-epibrassinolide (EBL: 0.0, 0.2, 0.4 µM), their combined treatments on maize (Zea mays L.) grown different levels saline stress (i.e., control, 5, 10 dS m−1) under semi-controlled conditions. Higher (10 negatively influenced growth traits, physiological attributes, elemental Zn K) uptake for both roots shoots maize, whereas it increased Na+ accumulation Na+/K+ ratio in comparison to other treatments. However, ZnO NPs EBL as well combinations showed amelioration detrimental effects biochemical performance maize. In general, were significantly more effective than either or individual A combination L−1 NPS + 0.2 µM resulted highest values root length, surface area, stem diameter, relative leaf water contents, total chlorophyll, net rate photosynthesis, accumulation, K+ uptake, while lowest ratio, especially saline-stress treatment. Thus, we concluded that can effectively mitigate saline-stress-mediated decline morphological, physiological, traits