The current st udy aims to r ec ord the rol e of the pretreatment of Z ea m ays grains with a He-Ne las er in d amage rep air of ultr aviolet (UVA+B) radiati on eff ect. Plants wer e divided into f our groups; c ontrol group, group expos ed to t he He -Ne l aser onl y f or 1-300 sec onds, group expos ed t o U V A+ B only and protect ed group. In t he prot ect ed group the grains were tr eated with diff erent H e -Ne las er irradiation dur ation f or two w eeks t hen expos ed to 3. 6 and 7. 2 KJ m − 2 d −1 UVA+B radiation.Irradiation with H e-Ne las er significantl y (p ≤ 0.05) increas ed shoot length, number of l eav es, s hoot biomas s (week 1), root dr y w eight, c hl orophyll -a, chl orophyll -b, and t ot al c hlor ophyll . Sup eroxide free r adical, hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation wer e decreas ed at l ow dos es and increas ed with higher dos es of las er. V arious d elet erious eff ects of ultravi olet r adiations w ere recorded in Zea m ays i ncluding decr eased phot os ynt hetic pigments, s hoot and root biomass, and root and shoot length. The pretreatm ent with a l aser bef ore expos ure t o UVA+B radiation c auses a slight i ncrease i n plant l engt h and t he number of leav es, an increase of r oot length, whil e a decreas e of shoot /root length and an i ncreas e i n l eaf paramet ers at s ome las er tr eatments wer e observed . T he res ults rev eal ed t hat the pretreatm ent of m aize grai ns wit h H e -N e laser dos es f or 10s to 300s allevi at ed the damaging eff ect s of U V-B radiati on in the range of 7.2 KJ m −2 d −1 UVA+B radiation.
KEY WORDS:He-Ne las er, Ultravi olet r adiation, prot ectiv e role, pigments, oxidative stress, antioxidants, U V-B abs orbing compounds, flav onoids.
I NTRODUCTI ON :Ultraviolet radiati ons (UV) ar e a nonionizing el ectrom agnetic spectr um t hat embraces about 8-9% of s ol ar energ y (Gill et al., 2015). O zone depleti on in the strat osphere has r esult ed in an increm ent i n ultravi olet-B irradiati on (UV-B ; 280-320 nm), which has pot entiall y destr uctiv e consequences for crop yield and production and aff ect nat ural environm ents (J ulkunenTiitto et al., 2005;Siipola et al ., 2015).Enhanc ed levels of ultravi olet r adiations trigger different str uct ural, p hysiol ogical and molec ular resp ons es i n plant s (Cas ati, 2003; Kum ari et al. , 2009; Sal ama et al. , 2011;Gill et al. , 2015). A higher d ose of UV-B prov ok es impairment and modific ation of macrom olec ules like DNA , RN A, and prot eins , decreas e net phot os ynthesis and adjust the activities of sev eral antioxidant enz ym es (Gill and T ut eja, 2010;Sharma et al., 2012). Nevert heless , plants hav e d evel oped v arious protectiv e strategies to m anage and withst and, agai nst high UV-B irradiation. The act ual accum ulation of U V -absorbing materi als c an cert ainl y help in the prev ention of U V penetrati on to vul ner able layers of the leaf . T his kind of c ompounds build -up withi n the upper epidermal l ayers of the leav es of sev eral higher plants purs uin...