Salicylic Acid Seed Priming Enhances Germination and Seedling Growth of Lallemantia iberica Under Mannitol-Induced Drought Stress

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Plant Production Engineering and Genetics, Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

2 Nuclear Agriculture Research School, Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute, AEOI, Karaj, Iran

3 Department of Agriculture and Food, Hemp Research Institute, Yozgat Bozok University, Yozgat, Türkiye

10.22126/atic.2025.11976.1211

Abstract

Here, the potential effects of salicylic acid (SA)-assisted priming on the germination and seedling growth of Lallemantia iberica (cultivar Sara) under drought stress was assessed using a factorial experiment based on a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. Salicylic acid (SA) pretreatment was used at four levels (control (zero), 1, 2, and 3 mM) and drought stress was induced using mannitol at two levels (zero and 100 mM). The results showed that the interaction effect of salicylic acid pretreatment with drought stress was statistically significant (p<0.01). High levels of drought stress (100 mM) caused a significant reduction in germination speed, shoot length, shoot weight, seedling dry weight, and relative water content. The highly significant positive correlation between root length and fresh weight (0.946**) suggested that longer roots are associated with greater fresh biomass. The results of the heatmap analysis provided a clear classification of treatments into two distinct groups in terms of the incidence or absence of mannitol. The results of the PCA provided insight into the morpho-physiological responses of L. iberica under drought conditions during seed germination, particularly when primed with the stress hormone of SA. The first two components of the analysis accounted for an impressive 91.5% of the total variation in the studied traits. However, pretreatment with SA (3 mM) increased the traits related to germination and seedling growth under drought-stress circumstances compared to stress conditions without SA pretreatment. This indicated that the use of SA pretreatment can mitigate the effects of drought stress on the Balangu plant during seed germination and seedling growth.

Graphical Abstract

Salicylic Acid Seed Priming Enhances Germination and Seedling Growth of Lallemantia iberica Under Mannitol-Induced Drought Stress

Highlights

  • Seed Priming with Salicylic Acid: The study investigates the use of salicylic acid to prime seeds prior to planting.
  • Improving Germination: The study uses salicylic acid to help alleviate the adverse effects of drought stress during the germination stage. It was found that salicylic acid priming led to improved seed germination rates under drought-stress conditions.
  • Improved Seedling Growth: Seeds treated with salicylic acid showed improved seedling growth, resulting in healthier and more vigorous plants despite mannitol-induced drought stress.
  • Drought Stress Management: The results show that salicylic acid helps plants cope better with water scarcity and supports their growth even in less-than-ideal conditions.
  • Mechanism of Action: Ultimately, such studies generally attribute the positive effects of salicylic acid to its role in stress response pathways and hormonal regulation, which may increase the plant's tolerance to environmental stress.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Agrotechniques in Industrial Crops

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Available Online from 09 July 2025

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