The effects of methyl jasmonate and salinity on germination and seedling growth in Ocimum basilicum L. Shekoofeh Enteshari* and Tahereh Jafari

About 10 percen of lands around the world under crops planting are affected by salinity. Therefore, comprehensive researches have been conducted to minimize the harmful effects of salinity in agriculture. The purpose of this study is examination of the Mmethyl jasmonate effect on reducing the effects of salinity in germination and vegetative stages of the basil plant.For the methyl jasmonate  treatment, seeds were soaked in methyl jasmonate (0,0/1 and 0/01 µM) and then seeds were placed on filter papers wet using NaCl (50, 100, 200 mM). Then, the morphological parameters examined. The results indicated that high concentration of salinity cause to decrease in germination percentage and Methyl jasmonate cause increase in germination percentage, and this indicated the positive effect of methyl jasmonate on improvement of stress conditions in plant. Furthermore, salinity increases the growth of root and shoot, and methyl jasmonate offsets this reduction.  Keywords: Enteshari, Sh. and T. Jafari. 2013. 'The effects of methyl jasmonate and salinity on germination and seedling growth in Ocimum basilicum L. stress'. Iranian Journal of Plant Physiology 3 (3), 749-756.