Vegetos
(An International Journal of Plant Research & Biotechnology)
(eISSN: 2229-4473)
Mitigating the adverse effects of PEG 6000 imposed water stress during germination of halo primed rice seeds var. HUR-3022 and Sahabhagidhan on vegetative and reproductive growth phases
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Research Article | Published: 03 June, 2026
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Keywords: Priming, Water stress, Antioxidant enzymes, ROS, PEG
Abstract
Water stress limits plant growth. For any crop, germination represents the first dynamic phase of its life which requires water for starting of various metabolic activities in terms of imbibition and osmosis. The present study exhibited the effect of water stress, imposed at the time of germination of rice varieties viz. HUR-3022 and Sahabhagidhan, using Mg(NO3)2 and K2SO4 halo primed seeds, on their vegetative and reproductive growth phase. Water stress was imposed, using different concentrations (osmotic potential of − 0.39 MPa and − 0.49 MPa) of PEG-6000 during germination. Stress induced seeds were transferred to the pots and grown up to yield along with control sets. Plants imposed with water stress showed a decrease in plant height, leaf area, relative water content and membrane stability index in various days of plant growth but all exhibited an increased trend with the use of primed seeds. Among biochemical parameters primed seeds improved the proline content, super oxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activity as well as decreased malonoaldehyde (MDA) content in stressed imposed sets resulted an improvement in yield finally. Among the two priming agents, Mg(NO3)2was found more effective. Hence result concluded that halo primed seeds can mitigate the adverse effects of water stress.
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Author Information
Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU, Varanasi, India