Seed Priming-Mediated Improvement of Plant Morphophysiology Under Salt Stress

Abstract

This chapter is describing the adverse effect of the salinity stress on the crop growth and development and how seed priming can alleviate salinity-induced devastating effects on plants. Growth of plant under salt stress is affected negatively due to oversynthesis of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to oxidative damage to biomolecule and plant membranes. The water stress and accumulation of toxic ions are the other major effects observed under salt stress. Overproduction of ROS reacts with key cellular molecules and metabolites including proteins, lipids, photosynthetic pigments, and DNA. However, numerous plant species have effective defense system based on antioxidants that activates once plant undergoes any abiotic stress. Among various antioxidants, nonenzymatic and enzymatic are essential to detoxify ROS and its scavenging. Recently, seed priming has gained popularity as it develops tolerance in plants against salinity during the germination process and seedling development stage. In various types of environmental stresses, the different priming techniques as osmopriming, hydropriming, hormonal priming, nutrient priming, chemical priming, bio-priming, matrix priming, and redox priming are employed. There has been increasing evidence that priming stimulates the cellular defense response that induces tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses upon exposure in the field.