The effect of salt stress on the germination of maize (Zea mays L.) seeds and photosynthetic pigments

Sali ALIU, Imer RUSINOVCI, Shukri FETAHU, Bekim GASHI, Emilija SIMEONOVSKA, Ludvik ROZMAN

Abstract


The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of salinity stress on seed germination and chlorophyll content in maize. In the study, two maize hybrids were included (Bc 678 and Bc 408) originating from the Bc Institute at Rugvica near Zagreb (Croatia) and two maize populations (LMP-1 and LMP-2) originating from Kosovo. The experiment was conducted in four replicates of 100 seeds, which were germinated on top of double-layered papers, each with 10 ml of salt solution of NaCl and CaCl2 in Petri dishes. Germinated seeds were counted every 24 h for 15 days. The photosynthetic pigments, chlorophylls ‘a’ and ‘b’ as well as carotenoids were extracted with 80 % acetone. Chlorophyll and carotenoid contents were calculated using absorbance values at 662, 644 and 440 nm. The effects of the NaCl and CaCl2 concentrations accounted for a high proportion of the variance in all analyses. The results showed that both germination percentage and germination index decreased significantly in all cultivars at the highest salt concentrations. The significant differences between different concentrations of salinity were also found in all cultivars for the content of chlorophyll ‘a’ and ‘b’ and for the content of carotenoids.


Keywords


zea mays; maize; soil salinity; site factors; stress; chemicophysical properties; seeds; germinability; genotypes; varieties; photosynthesis; pigments; carotenoids; chlorophyll

Full Text:

PDF

References


Aliu S., Fetahu Sh., Rozman L., Salillari A. 2008. General and specific combining ability studies for leaf area in some maize inbreeds in agroecological conditions of Kosovo. Acta agriculturae Slovenica, 91, 1: 67-73; DOI: 10.2478/v10014-008-0007-4

Aliu S., Gashi B., Rusinovci I., Fetahu Sh. Vataj R. 2013. Effects of some heavy metals in some morphological and physiological parameters in maize seedlings. American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 9, 1: 27-33; DOI: 10.3844/ajbbsp.2013.27.33

Aliu S., Rusinovci I., Gashi B., Kaul H.P., Rozman L., Fetahu Sh. 2014. Genetic diversity for mineral content and photosynthetic pigments in local bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) populations. Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, 12, 2: 635-639

Allen S.G., Dobrenz A.K., Schonhorst M.H. Stoner J.E. 1983. Heritability of NaCl tolerance in germinating alfalfa seeds. Agronomy Journal, 77: 99-101; DOI: 10.2134/agronj1985.00021962007700010023x

Amzallag N., Lerner H.R., Poljakoff Mayber A. 1990. Induction of increased salt tolerance in Sorghum bicolor by NaCl pretreatment. Journal of Experimental Botany, 41: 29–34; DOI: 10.1093/jxb/41.1.29

Arzani A. 2008. Improving salinity tolerance in crop plants: a biotechnological view. Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. Plant 44: 373-383; DOI: 10.1007/s11627-008- 9157-7

Association of Official Seed Analysis (AOSA). 1983. Seed Vigour Testing Handbook. Contribution No. 32 to the handbook on Seed Testing, 18-19

Bojović B., Đelić G.,Topuzović M., Stanković M. 2010. Effects of NaCl on seed germination in some species from families Brassicaceae and Solanaceae, Kragujevac Journal of Science, 32: 83- 87

Carpıcı E.B., Celık N., Bayram G. 2009. Effects of salt stress on germination of some maize (Zea mays L.) cultivars. African Journal of Biotechnology, 8, 19: 4918-4922.

Cramer, G.R. 2002. Sodium-calcium interaction under salinity stress, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557 USA. Chapter 10: 205-228.

Daughtry C., Walthall L., Kim K., Brown E., McMurtrey E. 1999. Estimating Corn Leaf Chlorophyll Concentration from Leaf and Canopy Reflectance. Remote sens. Environment, 74: 229- 239 ; DOI : 0.1016/S0034-4257(00)00113-9

Djanaguiraman M., Sheeba J.A., Shanker A.K., Devi D.D., Bangarusamy U. 2006. Rice can acclimate to lethal level of salinity by pretreatment with sublethal level of salinity through osmotic adjustment. Plant and Soil 284: 363-373; DOI: 10.1007/s11104-006-0043-y

FAO 2000. Global network on integrated soil management for sustainable use of salt-affected soils. Available in: http://www.fao.org/ag/AGL/agll/spush/intro.htm (28.Jan.2015)

FAO. 2008. Land and Plant Nutrition Management Service. http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/agll/. Accessed on November/ 15/2012.

Gama P.B.S., Inagana S., Tanaka K., Nakazawa R. 2007. Physiological response of common bean (Phaseolus Vulgaris. L.) seedlings to salinity stress. African Journal of Biotechnology, 2: 79-88

Gashi B., Babani F., Kongjika E. 2013. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging of photosynthetic activity and pigment contents of the resurrection plants Ramonda serbica and Ramonda nathaliae during dehydration and rehydration. Physiology Molocular Biology of Plants, 19, 3: 333-341; DOI: 10.1007/s12298-013-0175-5

Hasegawa P.M, Bressan R.A., Zhu J.K., Bohnert H.J. 2000. Plantcellular and molecular responses to high salinity. Annu. Rev. Plant Physiology, 51: 463-499; DOI: 10.1146/annurev.arplant.51.1.463

Katerji N., Van Hoorn J.W., Hamdy. A., Karam F., Mastroruilli M. 1994. Effect of Salinity on Emergence and on Water Stress and Early Seedling Growth of Sunflower and Maize. Agric. Wat. Mang., 26: 81-91; DOI: 10.1016/0378- 3774(94)90026-4

Kaya C., Ashraf M., Murat Dikilitas M,, Atilla L. 2013. Alleviation of salt stress-induced adverse effects on maize plants by exogenous application of indoleacetic acid (IAA) and inorganic nutrients – A field trial. Australian Journal of Crop Science, 7, 2: 249-254

Khajeh-Hosseini M., Powell A.A., Bimgham I.J. 2003. The interaction between salinity stress and seed vigor during germination of soybean seeds. Seed Science Technology, 31: 715-725; DOI: 10.15258/sst.2003.31.3.20

Khan A. M., Rizvi Y. 1994. Effect of salinity, temperature and growth regulators on the germination and early seedling growth of Atriplex griffthii. Canadian Journal of Botany, 72, 475-479; DOI: 10.1139/b94-063

Lambers H. 2003. Introduction, dry land salinity: a key environmental issue in Southern Australia. Plant Soil, 257: 5-7; DOI: 10.1023/B:PLSO.0000003909.80658.d8

Lichtenthaler H. 1986. Laser-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence of Living Plants, Proceedings of the Remote Sensing Symposium, Band III, ESA Publication Division, Nordwijk, 1571-1579

Moradi D.P., Sharif-Zadeh F., Janmohammadi M. 2008. Influence of priming techniques on seed germination behavior of maize inbred lines (Zea mays L.). Journal of Agricultural and Biological Sciences, 3, 3: 22-25

Munns R. 1993. Physiological processes limiting plant growth in saline soils: some dogmas and hypotheses. Plant Cell Environment, 16: 15-24; DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3040.1993.tb00840.x

Pesqueira J., Garcia M.D., Staltari S., Molina M.D.C. 2006. NaCl effects in Zea mays L. x Tripsacum dactyloides L. hybrid calli and plants. Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, 9, 3: 285-290; DOI: 10.2225/vol9-issue3-fulltext-29

Rahman M., Kayani S.A., Gul S. 2000. Combined Effects of Temperature and Salinity Stress on Corn Sunahry Cv., Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences, 3, 9: 1459-1463; DOI: 10.3923/pjbs.2000.1459.1463

Sharma R.K., Sharma S. 2010. Effect of storage and cold-stratification on seed physiological aspects of Bunium persicum: A threatened medicinal herb of Trans-Himalaya. Int. J. Bot., 6, 2: 151-156; DOI: 10.3923/ijb.2010.151.156

Taiz L., Zeiger E. 2002. Plant Physiology. 3rd Edn., Sunderland, Sinauer Associates, Inc.: 85-87

Turan M., Elkarim H., Taban N., Suleyman Taban S. 2010. Effect of salt stress on growth and ion distribution and accumulation in shoot and root of maize plant. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 5, 7: 584-588

Wue Ch., Niu Zh., Tang Q., Huang W. 2008. Estimating chlorophyll content from hyperspectral vegetation indices: Modeling and validation. Agricultural and forest meteorology, 148: 1230–1241; DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2008.03.005

Yohannes G., Abraha B. 2013. The role of seed priming in improving seed germination and seedling growth of maize (Zea mays L.) under salt stress at laboratory conditions. African Journal of Biotechnology, 12, 46: 6484-6490




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14720/aas.2015.105.1.09

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2015 Acta agriculturae Slovenica

 

Acta agriculturae Slovenica is an Open Access journal published under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY License.

                           


eISSN 1854-1941