Abstract
Use of plant hormones as seed priming agents is known to improve the field performance especially under stressful conditions like salinity. A pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of seed priming of two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars Auqab-2000 (salt tolerant) and MH-97 (salt sensitive) under saline (15 dS m−1) and non-saline (2.75 dS m−1) conditions. For priming seeds were soaked in aerated water (hydropriming), and solutions of kinetin (Kin; 25 mg L−1), or salicylic acid (SA; 50 mg L−1) for 12 h. All the priming treatments significantly reduced the adverse effects of salinity in terms of improving final emergence, growth and grain yield of both cultivars. Seed priming with SA and Kin improved salt tolerance in both wheat cultivars by the activation of antioxidants, i.e. superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) to counterbalance the oxidative damage. Albeit, Na+ and Cl− contents increased due to salinity, all priming strategies lowered the accumulation of Na+ and enhanced the accumulation of K+ in leaves of both cultivars. The results suggest that priming with SA followed by kinetin successfully improved fitness of wheat plants exposed to salt stress.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Afzal, I., Rauf, S., Basra, S.M.A., Murtaza, G. 2008. Halopriming improves vigor, metabolism of reserves and ionic contents in wheat seedlings under salt stress. Plant Soil Environ. 54:382–388.
Afzal, I., Basra, S.M.A., Ashraf, M., Hameed, A., Farooq, M. 2006. Physiological enhancements for alleviation of salt tolerance in spring wheat. Pak. J. Bot. 38:1649–1659.
Al-Hakimi, A.M.A., Hamada, A.M. 2001. Counteraction of salinity stress on wheat plants by grain soaking in ascorbic acid, thiamin or sodium salicylate. Biol. Plant. 44:253–261.
Association of Official Seed Analysts (AOSA). 1983. Seed Vigor Testing Handbook, No. 32. Association of Official Seed Analysts, Springfield, IL, USA.
Azevedo Neto, A.D., Prisco, J.T., Eneas-Filho, J., Medeiros, J-V.R., Gomes-Filho, E. 2005. Hydrogen peroxide pre-treatment induces stress acclimation in maize plants. J. Plant Physiol. 162:1114–1122.
Bailly, C., Benamar, A., Corbineau, F., Côme, D. 1998. Free radical scavenging as affected by accelerated ageing and subsequent priming in sunflower seeds. Physiol. Plant. 104:646–652.
Bewley, J.D., Black, M. 1982. Physiology and Biochemistry of Seeds in Relation to Germination, Vol. 2. Viability, Dormancy, and Environmental Control. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
Cao, Y., Zhang, Z., Xuea, L., Dua, J., Shanga, J., Xua, F., Yuanb, S., Lina, H. 2009. Lack of salicylic acid in arabidopsis protects plants against moderate salt stress. Z. Naturforsch. 64:231–238.
Chipa, B.R., Lal, P. 1993. Ionic ratios as the basis of salt tolerance in wheat. Agrochimica 37:63–67.
Dixit, V., Pandey, V., Shyam, R. 2001. Differential antioxidative response to cadmium in roots and leaves of pea. J. Exp. Bot. 52:1101–1109.
El-Tayeb, M.A. 2005. Response of barley grains to the interactive effect of salinity and salicylic acid. Plant Growth Regul. 45:215–224.
Gadallah, M.A.A. 1999. Effects of kinetin on growth, grain yield and some mineral elements in wheat plants growing under excess salinity and oxygen deficiency. Plant Growth Regul. 27:63–71.
Gorham, J., McDonnel, E., Wyn Jones, R.G. 1984. Salt tolerance in the Triticaceae. I. Leymus sabulosus. J. Exp. Bot. 35:1200–1209.
Hocart, C.H., Lethem, D.S., Parker, C.W. 1990. Metabolism and translocation of exogenous zeatin riboside in germinating seeds and seedlings of Zea mays. J. Exp. Bot. 41:1517–1524.
Iqbal, M., Ashraf, M. 2006. Wheat seed priming in relation to salt tolerane: Growth, yield and levels of free salicylic acid and polyamines. Ann. Bot. Fennici. 43:250–259.
Janda, T., Horváth, E., Szalai, G., Páldi, E. 2007. Role of salicylic acid in the induction of abiotic stress tolerance. In: Hayat, S., Ahmad, A. (eds), Acid — A Plant Hormone. Springer, The Netherland, pp. 91–150.
Kampfenkel, K., Montagu, M.V., Inze, D. 1995. Extraction and determination of ascorbate and dehydroascorbate from plant tissue. Anal. Biochem. 225:165–167.
Lee, D.H., Kim, Y.S., Lee, C.B. 2001. The inductive responses of the antioxidant enzymes by salt stress in the rice (Oryza sativa L.). J. Plant Physiol. 158:737–745.
Stevens, J., Senaratna, T., Sivasithamparam, K. 2006. Salicylic acid induces salinity tolerance in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. ‘Roma’): Associated changes in gas exchange, water relations and membrane stabilisation. Plant Growth Regul. 49:77–83.
Szepesi, Á., Csiszár, J., Gémes, K., Horváth, E., Horváth, F., Simon, L.M., Tari, I. 2009. Salicylic acid improves acclimation to salt stress by stimulating abscisic aldehyde oxidase activity and abscisic acid accumulation, and increases Na+ content of leaves without toxicity symptoms in Solanum lycopersicum L. J. Plant Physiol. 166:914–925.
Tari, I., Csiszár, J., Szalai, G., Horváth, F., Pécsváradi, A., Kiss, G., Szepesi, Á., Szabó, M., Erdei, L. 2002. Acclimation of tomato plants to salinity stress after salicylic acid pre-treatment. Acta Biol. Szeged. 46:55–56.
Tari, I., Kiss, G., Deér, A.K., Csiszár, J., Erdei, L., Gallé, Á., Gémes, K., Horváth, F., Poór, P., Szepesi, Á., Simon, L.M. 2010. Salicylic acid increased aldose reductase activity and sorbitol accumulation in tomato plants under salt stress. Biol. Plant. 54:677–683.
Wahid, A., Perveen, M., Gelani, S., Basra, S.M.A. 2007. Pretreatment of seed with H2O2 improves salt tolerance of wheat seedlings by alleviation of oxidative damage and expression of stress proteins. J. Plant Physiol. 164:283–294.
Wang, L.J., Li, S.H. 2006. Thermotolerance and related antioxidant enzyme activities induced by heat acclimation and salicylic acid in grape (Vitis vinifera L.) leaves. Plant Growth Regul. 48:137–244.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by A. Pécsváradi
Rights and permissions
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Afzal, I., Basra, S.M.A., Ahmad, N. et al. Enhancement of Antioxidant Defense System Induced by Hormonal Priming in Wheat. CEREAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS 39, 334–342 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1556/CRC.39.2011.3.3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/CRC.39.2011.3.3