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Seed Priming: An Emerging Technology to Impart Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants

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Advances in Seed Priming

Abstract

Crop plants encounter a complex set of abiotic and biotic stresses very frequently. Abiotic stresses, being unavoidable, have major negative impact on crop production worldwide. These stresses such as inadequate and inconsistent rainfall, alkalinity, salinity, extreme temperature, and some other factors aren’t only limiting crop yield but also seem to be inevitably worsening. Considering present situation, it is imperative to switch to some more sophisticated techniques that shall combat abiotic environmental challenges and improve crop yield efficiently. Among these, seed priming is a commonly utilized technology for enhancing seed vigor and stress tolerance. Seed priming involves the attainment of a specific physiological state by synthetic or natural compounds. Crop plants raised from primed seeds exhibit instant cellular response against abiotic stresses. Primed seed acquire resistance through various cellular and metabolic pathways which involves cascades of signaling networks. Studies, till date, have confirmed that primed seeds have several advantages over traditionally used methods which include uniform germination, reduction in germination and emergence time, and broad range of tolerance against disease and environmental stresses. Seed priming methods are widely used as an emerging technology to produce tolerant crop varieties against abiotic stresses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, India

    Shambhu Krishan Lal, Vijay Sheri, Sahil Mehta, Panditi Varakumar, Babu Ram, Bhabesh Borphukan, Donald James, Dhirendra Fartyal & Malireddy K. Reddy

  2. ICAR-Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

    Shambhu Krishan Lal & Sudhir Kumar

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  1. Shambhu Krishan Lal
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  2. Sudhir Kumar
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  3. Vijay Sheri
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  4. Sahil Mehta
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  8. Donald James
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Amitava Rakshit

  2. Department of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Harikesh Bahadur Singh

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Lal, S.K. et al. (2018). Seed Priming: An Emerging Technology to Impart Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants. In: Rakshit, A., Singh, H. (eds) Advances in Seed Priming . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0032-5_3

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