Effect of plant-derived smoke priming on physiological and biochemical characteristics of rice under salt stress condition.

Abstract

Plant growth and productivity are adversely affected by various forms of abiotic stresses all over the world. Soil salinity affects various physiological and biochemical processes which results in reduced biomass production. From the last two decades, Plant-derived smoke solutions have been used as growth promoters, therefore we designed some experiments to investigate the effect of priming with different dilutions (1:100, 1:500 and 1:1000) of two plant-derived smoke solutions (Bauhinia and Cymbopogon) on physiological and biochemical aspects of indica rice variety (NIAB-IR-9) under salt (NaCl) stressed conditions. The seeds were primed both in water and smoke solutions for 24 hrs. Ten day experiment was conducted for germination and seedling vigor, while the plants were subjected for 30 days to sand culture salinized with four salt levels (0, 50, 100 and 150mM NaCl) to assess biochemical parameters. Significant increase occurred in germination percentage (23.3 %) and seedling vigor of smoke primed seeds as compared to non-smoke primed seeds at high salt concentration. Smoke primed seeds showed a significant increase in fresh and dry weight as well. Plants raised from seeds primed with different smoke dilutions had increased K + , Ca 2+ and decreased Na + content compared to plants raised from hydro primed seeds under saline conditions. Similarly plant raised from primed seeds had higher chlorophyll a and b and carotenoids contents as compared to non-smoke treated plants. Concentration of total nitrogen and protein contents also raised in plants treated with smoke solutions as the level of salt increased. Bauhinia (1:500) was the most promontory dilution that significantly alleviated salt stress both at the physiological and biochemical level. It can be concluded that plant-derived smoke solution has some growth regulatory compounds that can increase productivity by reducing the negative effects of salt (NaCl) stress in rice plants.