Study the effect of pre-treatment of seed with hydrogen peroxide on physiological and yield attributes traits of mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) under drought stress conditions

In order to evaluate the effect of seed priming with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on drought tolerance of mung bean this factorial pot experiment was carried out based on a completely randomized design with 4 replications in the research field of Yadegar-e-Imam Khomeini, Shahre-rey Branch, Islamic Azad University on 2013. The first factor was irrigation, including irrigation after 60 and 120 mm evaporation from pan evaporation as normal and drought conditions, respectively. The second factor was 5 levels of seed soaking in various concentrations of H2O2 (0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 mM) for 6 hours. Results showed that drought stress significantly decreased plant height, biomass, yield and yield components, leaf area, relative chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance and relative water content. Nonetheless, pretreatment of seeds with 90 mM H2O2 increased all mentioned traits under drought conditions. This treatment raised seed yield of plant by 25% as compared to control under drought conditions. These results indicated that pretreatment with H2O2 improved growth and drought tolerance of mung bean plants by increasing chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance, relative water content and leaf area.