The effect of different priming methods on seed and seedlings of Lallemantia under salt stress

In order to investigate the effects of priming methods on the improvement of seed germination indices and seedling growth of Lallemantia (Lallemantia Iberica) under different salinity levels, two factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design were carried out in the seed technology laboratory of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan in 2018-2019. In the first experiment, five levels of seed priming including: control, hydropriming (for 24 hours), gibberellic acid (100 mg.l-1 for eight hours), and solutes of potassium nitrate and sodium chloride (NaCl) (50 mg.l-1 for 6 hours) as the first factor and four levels of salinity stress, including 0 (control), 100, 200, and 300 mM of NaCl, as the second factor in four replications were examined. Also, a pot experiment was conducted to determine the effects of the studied treatments on some seedling growth indices in three replications. In general, indices of germination percentage, germination rate, radicle length, plumule length, emergence percentage, emergence rate, contents of chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids, and enzymatic activities of catalase and peroxidase were evaluated in this study. Results revealed that salinity stress, priming, and their interaction had significant effects on most of the studied traits. Also, increasing salinity concentrations led to decreases in all traits (except the activity of antioxidant enzymes). Generally, our findings showed that all seed priming treatments moderated the negative impacts of salinity stress and the application of NaCl could be a suitable treatment to increase the tolerance of Lallemantia seeds against high levels of salinity stress.