Seed priming: A shotgun approach for alleviation of salt stress in wheat

Salinity is a major abiotic constraint to sustainable crop production. Seed priming is a useful tool to enhance the performance of crops on saline soils. A field study was carried out to explore the potential of priming to improve salt tolerance in wheat cultivars MH-97 and SARC-1. Seeds were primed in distilled water (hydropriming) and aqueous solutions containing 50mg L^-1 of salicylic acid (SA), kinetin (Kin), ascorbate and 50mM calcium chloride (CaCl₂) for 12h. After priming, seeds were sown in normal (0.31 dS m^-1) and saline (10 dS m^-1) fields. Seed priming with ascorbate, SA and Kin effectively alleviated the salinity-induced damage in both wheat cultivars; however, ascorbate priming was the most effective. Seed priming with SA, Kin and ascorbate significantly decreased the uptake of Na⁺ and Cl^- and enhanced the uptake of K⁺ in leaves of both cultivars under salinity stress. These results suggest that priming with seed priming with ascorbate, SA and Kin are effective strategies to improve the wheat productivity under salinity stress.