Responses of Maize Varieties to Salt Stress in Relation to Germination and Seedling Growth

Abstract

A pot experiment was carried out at the Laboratory of Department of Agronomy, Hajee Mohamad Danesh Science and Technology University (HSTU), Bangladesh during 2016 to evaluate the response of maize varieties at germination and seedling growth stages under salt stress. The seeds of the BARI (Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute) developed four maize varieties viz. Barnali, Khoi Vutta, Mohor and BARI Maize 5 were placed in plastic pots (each of 25 cm length and 12 cm width) on sand bed irrigated with tap water (control), 100 and 200 mM NaCl salt solutions. It was replicated in thrice with completely randomized design (CRD). Salinity stress significantly affected the germination characters and seedling growth parameters of maize varieties. The germination percentages (GP) and germination rate (GR) reduced significantly with increasing salinity, and the variety Khoi Vutta showed the highest GP and GR followed by Barnali and Mohor showed the lowest GP and GR followed by BARI maize 5. Under high salinity level, seedling growths characteristics like shoot and root lengths, fresh and dry weight of shoot and roots reduced remarkably in the variety Mohor indicating salt susceptible while the minimum reduction of the aforementioned traits was observed in the variety Khoi Vutta demonstrating high salt tolerant variety. The studied varieties can be ranked on the basis of salt tolerance as Khoi Vutta > Barnali > BARI Maize 5 > Mohor from the experiment.

Genotypic Divergences of Important Mungbean Varieties in Response to Salt Stress at Germination and Early Seedling Stage

“…Less transfer of metabolites to the expanding tissues may also reduce lengths because metabolite synthesis is greatly hampered at high salinity conditions [39]. Our experimental findings are coined with the observations of the study conducted by Hassan et al [5], Hajier et al [34], Niamat et al [55], Ungar [59], El-Kafafi et al [56]. NaCl-induced toxicity enhanced abnormal seedling production as well as decreased the lengths of seedlings [48].…”

“…Abiotic stresses caused by climate change progressively affect the cropping systems, which poses serious threats for global food production. Salinity is an abiotic environmental stress that seriously limits seed germination and hampers the seedlings and plant growth of different crops [3][4][5][6][7]. Salt stress is increasing day by day due to human action and climate change, which has a dramatic response to the morpho-physiology of plants.…”

Seed Germination and Early Seedling Growth of Sorghum (<i>Sorghum bicolor</i> L. Moench) Genotypes Under Salinity Stress

“…The maximum GR (30.93%) was documented in the variety of Debuday though the lowest (19.03%) was documented in the variety Karmici under control conditions. Moreover, at 100 mM NaCl salinity level, the maximum reduction of GR (27.32%) was recorded in [14,[29][30][31] in sorghum, and other crops such as wheat [32], maize [33], black gram [34], and mung bean [35]. Poor seedling emergence due to salt stress might be caused by the weakness of hypocotyls.…”

Green manure for soil salinity reclamation- A comprehensive review

“…A soil is grouped as under saline stress, when the electrical conductivity (EC) of the soil upsurges with salt concentration and that is when EC reaches ≥ 4 dS/m (Almeida et al, 2020). Salinity stress reduces leaf number and leaf area, crop growth and yield through nutrient imbalance, ion toxicity, osmotic imbalance, oxidative stress, reducing photosynthesis, altering gene expression and Nfixation (Desoky et al, 2020;Abdelaal et al, 2020b;Helaly et al, 2017;Hasan et al, 2017;Yan et al 2013). According to Sapre et al (2021) salinity hinders legume crop's growth, development and productivity by disturbing ionic and osmotic balance and hormonal regulation.…”