International Journal of Agriculture and Crop Sciences.

Available online at www.ijagcs.com

IJACS/2012/4-6/289-292.
ISSN 2227-670X ©2012 IJACS Journal

Effect of Priming with Indole-Butyric Acid (IBA) on

Germination and Growth of Wheat under Saline
Conditions
Vahid Ghodrat1, Mohammad J. Rousta2, Mohammad S. Tadaion3
1 .Islamic Azad University, Arsanjan branch, Arsanjan, Fars, Iran
2. National Salinity Research Center, Yazd, Iran
3 .Agricultural and Natural Resource Research Center, Shiraz, Fars, Iran

Corresponding author Email: vahid.ghodrat@gmail.com

Postal address: No. 13, Sanaz Building, 11th Alley, Enghelab St. Shiraz 7135613559, Iran

ABSTRACT: In order to study the effect of priming with Indole-butyric acid (IBA) on germination and
growth of wheat under saline conditions, an experiment was conducted as factorial with completely
randomized design with three replications. The factors of the experiment are different levels of Indole-
butyric acid concentration (0, 10 and 20mgL-1) and salinity (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40dsm-1). The results
showed that increasing salinity would decrease the components of germination including germination
percentage, germination rate, root and shoot length and wet weight of seedling. However, priming with
Indole-butyric acid significantly decreased the salinity effect. The maximum root length is obtained for
10 mgL-1 IBA treatment. It is generally concluded that priming with IBA would improve germination
components and increase the resistance of wheat in germination stage under saline conditions.

Key words: priming, Indol-butyric acid, germination, salt stress, wheat

INTRODUCTION

The overarching goal of crop establishment is to achieve rapid and uniform germination, followed by
rapid and uniform seedling emergence plus autotrophy (Cavell et al., 1986). Nearly 20% of the world’s
cultivated area and nearly half of the world’s irrigated lands are affected by salinity (Zhu, 2001).The effect of
salinity at seedling stage of wheat range from reduction in germination percentage, fresh and dry weight of
shoots and roots to the uptake of various nutrient ions. The use of cultivars with high salt tolerance may also
offer an alternative (Wannamaker and Pike, 1987). Per-sowing seed treatments have been shown to enhance
stand establishment in non-saline areas (Khan, 1992) and have potential in saline areas as well (Ashram and
Ruaf, 2001; Basra et al., 2005). Presoaking seeds with optimal concentration of phytohormones has been
shown to be beneficial to growth and yield of some crop species under saline conditions by increasing nutrient
reserves through increasing physiological activities and root proliferation (Singh and Dara, 1971). Prior to
selecting these alternatives, it seems necessary to examine seed vigor enhancement techniques leading to
better and synchronized stand establishment under stress conditions have been intensively investigated in the
past two decades (Bradford, 1986). Incorporation of plant growth regulators during per-soaking, priming and
other per sowing treatments in many vegetables and crops have improved seed performance. Typical
responses to priming are faster and closer spread of times to emergence over all seedbed environments and
wider temperature range of emergence, which lead to better crop stands, and hence improve yield and harvest
quality, especially under suboptimal and stress conditions in the field (Halmer, 2004). The importance of IAA
was indicated with respect to seed germination process (Gregorio et al. 1995). So an understanding of the
physiological basis of seed germination under saline conditions is important since research is in progress to
ameliorate the adverse effects of salinity on germination by employing certain chemical and biochemical
agents. The present study is therefore, deviated to investigate the effects of presoaking of wheat seeds in
varying concentration of hormones upon their germination and subsequent growth under saline conditions.
Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 4 (6), 289-292, 2012

MATERIALS AND METHODS

SEED MATERIALS
Seeds of wheat (Triticum aestivum l.) were obtained from Agricultural and Natural Resource Research
Center of Zarghan. Before starting the experiment, seeds were surface sterilized in 1% sodium hypochlorite
solutions for 3min, then rinsed with sterilized water and air dried.

SEED SOAKING WITH PLANT GROWTH REGULATOR

Hormone solutions of 0, 10 and 20 mgL-1 of IBA were prepared separately. 250 g of seeds were soaked
in 500 ml of respective hormonal solution for 12 h and redried to original weight with forced air under shade
(Sundstrom et al., 1987)

SEEDLING VIGOR EVALUATION

An experiment was conducted as factorial with completely randomized design with three replications.
The factors of the experiment are different levels of Indole-butyric acid concentration (0, 10 and 20 mgL-1) and
salinity (0, 10, 20, 30 and 40 dsm-1). Control and treated seeds were put in Petri dish, covered completely with
o
paper and placed in growth chamber at temperature of 25 C. Emergence was recorded daily and the
experiment was preceded for 10 day.
In this study, germination percentage (GP) was calculated according to the International Seed Testing
Association (ISTA) methods

Also, the germination rate (GR) was calculated according to ISTA methods:

Where !the number of seeds is emerged on " th day and #$ is the number of days counted from the
beginning of the experiment. % is set to 10 days in this experiment.
At the end of the experiment, shoot and root lengths, fresh weight and root shoot ratio were measured. The
data analysis of variance is done by SAS statistical program. The treatment means were compared using the
Duncan test at 0.05 probability level.

RESULT

Presoaking with plant growth regulator had significant effects on germination percentage, germination
rate and total fresh weight under both normal and saline conditions (Table 1). As it can be seen in Table1 (and
also Fig.1), salt stress has decreased germination percentage. Treating with IBA, on the other hand,
-1
significantly increased GP especially in the level of 30dsm with 72/4 percent increase compared to control. In
-1 -1
level of 10dsm , soaking with concentration of 10 and 20 mgL of IBA was identical to control. The reason is
that in this level, wheat is resistant to salt stress and thus germination is already in its maximum quantity. In the
-1
level of 40dsm none of treatments showed germination (Fig 1).

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 Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 4 (6), 289-292, 2012

Figure1. Germination in seeds primed with 0 mgL-1 (control), 10 mgL-1 and 20 mgL-1 IBA. In each sample, salinity increases
(from 0-40 dsm-1) from right to left. Note the higher germination in salinity level of 20dsm-1 for seeds primed with IBA
compared to control.

As salt increased germination rate diminished in all treatments, however, presoaking with IBA
significantly increased germination rate compared to the control. The highest GR in salinity levels of 0, 10, 20
-1 -1
and 30dsm were obtained for seeds soaked with 10mgL IBA with respectively 1/9, 2/3, 12 and 104 percent
increase compared to the control (Table 1).
Seeds primed with IBA had higher total fresh weight compared to the control. The highest total fresh
-1 -1
weight in salinity levels of 0, 10, 20 and 30 dsm was recorded for seeds soaked with 10 mgL IBA with
respectively 74, 47, 114 and 42 percent increase compared to the control (Table 1).

Table 1. Effects of different pre-sowing seed treatments on germination percentage, germination rate and fresh weight of
wheat growing under normal and saline conditions during emergence test.
GP (%) GR(day) fresh weight (g)
-1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
EC 0mgL 10mg L 20mg 0mgL 10mgL 20mgL 0mgL 10mgL 20mgL
A A A A A A A A C
control 100 100 100 57.1 58.2 58.1 0.188 0.336 0.224
A A A A A A D B D
10 100 100 100 55.1 57.1 56.2 0.0183 0.273 0.200
A A A BC A AB F E E
20 96.7 100 97 48.3 54.1 52.9 0.047 0.113 0.111
D B B E C D F F F
30 48.3 83.3 81.3 22.1 45.1 30.1 0.037 0.052 0.044
E E E F F F G G G
40 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

All of the treatments showed significant effect on shoot and root lengths (Fig. 1) as well as root shoot
ratio under both normal and saline conditions (Table 2). Seed soaked with IBA had higher shoot and root
length compared to control. In our experiment, highest shoot and root length in salinity levels of 0, 10, 20 and
-1 -1
30 dsm was recorded for 10mgL IBA (Table 2). In terms of salinity, the highest recorded length was recorded
-1 -1
for priming with 10mgL IBA with 74 percent increase compared to control. In the salinity level of 30dsm ,
presoaking with IBA increased root shoot ratio (Table 2).

Table 2. Effect of different pre-sowing seed treatments on shoot length, root length and root shoot ratio of wheat growing
under normal and saline condition during emergence test.

Shoot length(cm) Root length(cm) Root shoot ratio

-1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
EC 0mgL 10mgL 20mgL 0mgL 10mg L 20mgL 0mgL 10mg L 20mgL
AB A AB A A A C B B
control 9.9 12.1 11 9 18.3 17.8 0.9 1.5 1.6
C AB BC C C CD C C CD
10 6.7 10.7 8.6 5 5.7 3.7 0.8 0.7 0.4
F DE EF E DE DE C CD C
20 1.4 4.8 2.6 1.2 2.2 1.5 1 0.5 0.7
F F E E E A A A
30 0.1 0.2 0.2F 0.3 0.6 0.5 2.4 2.7 2.3
F F F E E E D D D
40 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

DISCUSSION

Salt stressed seeds are desiccation sensitive, which cause physiological injuries in seeds and thus
resulting in reduction of seed germination (Wiebe and Tiesses, 1979). In view of some earlier studies it is now
evident that pre-soaking or priming of different crops’ seed improves germination, seedling establishment and in
some cases enhances crop yield (Ahmad et al., 1998; Harris et al., 1999). The results showed that priming with
IBA would improve components of germination and seedling growth in wheat under salinity conditions. The
significant role of the growth regulators in the promotion of growth and cell division through changing the pattern
of enzyme development have mentioned by a number of researchers such as Liu and Loy (1976) and
Broughton and Mc Comb (1971). Seeds primed with IBA had earlier germination compared to the control.
Therefore, these seeds deploy faster under environmental stress. Faster germination also keeps the seeds
away from pests. Moreover, Seeds primed with IBA showed higher germination rate compared to control which
shows that in a given time, primed seeds can produce more dry matter (compared to control) under salinity
stress. Our findings are in agreement with results of Chauhan et al (2010). Due to the low concentrations of
IBA used and the satisfactory results obtained in this experiment, we can suggest this method to the farmers to
get higher germination rate and uniformity under salinity stress.

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