Seed Osmopriming and Acclimation Mitigate the Inhibitory Effects of Salt Stress in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Plants retain the preceding abiotic stress memory, which could help them to tolerate subsequent stresses. Priming applications have been extensively studied to induce stress memory of the plant by the external stimulus. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence acclimation and seed priming in improving salt tolerance in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). For this, sodium chloride (3 gL(-1)), proline (1 mM), zinc sulfate (1 mM), and their mixtures was used to prime seeds under non-stress conditions, salt stress as well as salt acclimation. Significant differences in seedling length, germination percentage, relative water content, pigments content, antioxidant activity, and the compatible soluble content under nonprime and primed conditions were observed. Results have shown that seed priming increased stress tolerance by improving physiological, biochemical, and molecular characteristics. However, the strength of this improvement varied depending on the type of priming combination and the concentration used. Furthermore, wheat plants' metabolic processes changed when exposed to salt stress, as well as how these plants responded to the stress, after acclimation. The concurrent use of seed priming and acclimation can improve stress tolerance indices and make priming treatments useless. The more studies are needed to investigate the physiological, biochemical, and genetic mechanisms of seed priming, acclimation and their combination to learn more about how to boost wheat output.