Effect of seed priming on some morphophysiological characteristics of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) seedlings under salinity stress

In order to study the effect of seed priming on morphophysiological characteristics of seedlings of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under salinity stress, a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with three replications was conducted at the Research Center for Plant Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, in 2011. In this study, osmotic solutions of NaCl with electrical conductivity of 0, 4, 8 and 12 dS/m were salinity levels and PEG – 6000 (-0.8 MPa) and CaCl2 (-1 MPa) were used as seed-priming materials. After priming the seeds, they were planted in plastic pots and after 28 days, the seedlings were sampled. Results showed that salinity stress decreased significantly such traits as shoot length, dry weight of shoot, leaf area, membrane stability index and relative water content and increased significantly the proline content of leaves. Leaf area, membrane stability index, relative water content and leaf proline content were significantly increased in seedlings grown from seed priming, as compared to control. Also, interaction of seed priming and salinity showed that these characteristics were significantly increased as compared to control. In general, seed priming with PEG – 6000 (-0.8 MPa) and CaCl2 (-1 MPa) osmotic solutions alleviated negative effects of salinity on pea seedlings. Ameliorative effects of CaCl2 priming were significantly more than PEG