chemical priming with urea and KNO3 enhances maiz hybids seed viability under abiotic stress.pdf

Since early migration from aquatic environments to the land, plants have had to cope with periodic and unpredictable environ- mental stresses. Crop production in arid and semi-arid regions is restricted by soil salinity and soil deficiencies in moisture (EL- Siddig et al. 1998; Pessarakli 2001). Water deficit associated with salinity in irrigation water is the major limiting factor in the most regions where plants are subjected to extreme water deficit during the dry seasons (Kerepesi and Galiba 2000). In these cli- matic conditions, salts may accumulate in the soil because of high evaporative demand and insufficient leaching of ions due to low precipitation. Therefore, soil salinity is sometimes a key factor in determining the ecological distribution of drought- adapted species (Gucci et al. 1997). Moisture stress at any stage of crop growth can cause an irre- versible loss in yield potential (Reginato 1993). Rapid and uni- form field emergence is an essential prerequisite to reach the yield potential, quality, and ultimately profit in annual crops (Parera and Cantliffe 1994). Greater and better synchronized germination is crucial for achieving an optimal seedling estab- lishment and better productivity; however, several environmen- tal constraints are great impediments (Wahid et al. 2008). One pragmatic approach to increase crop production is seed invigora- tion (Basra et al. 2004; Farooq et al. 2006; Lee and Kim 2000). Seed invigoration strategies include hydropriming, osmocondi- Hossein Sadeghi ( ) E-mail: sadeghih@shirazu.ac.ir Tel: +98-711 6138171 / Fax: +98-711 2287159 289 The Korean Society of Crop Science J. Crop Sci. Biotech. 2011 (December) 14 (4) : 289 ~ 295 RESEARCH ARTICLE DOI No. 10.1007/s12892-011-0039-x Chemical Priming with Urea and KNO3 Enhances Maize Hybrids (Zea mays L.) Seed Viability under Abiotic Stress Hadi Pirasteh Anosheh1, Hossein Sadeghi2*, Yahya Emam1 1Department of Crop Production and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Shiraz Un