RESPONSE OF BARLEY GENOTYPES TO SALINITY STRESS AS ALLEVIATED BY SEED PRIMING

The present study entitled "Response of barley genotypes to salinity stresses as alleviated by seed priming was conducted at the Greenhouses of the Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan. The experiment was conducted in completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. The response of twelve barely genotypes (Haider-93, Soorab-96, Arabic Asward, NRB-37, Frontier-87, Jau-83, Balochistan-Local, NRB-31, KPK-Local, Sanober-96, Awarn-2002 and AZ-2006) at two seed conditions (seed priming with 30 mM NaCl and no seed priming) under four salinity levels (0 mM, 50 mM. 100 mM and 150 mM) was studied. The results revealed that seed priming and salinity had significantly (P <= 0.05) affected all parameters under study. However, the effect of seed priming was non significant on shoot length (cm) and root length (cm). Maximum shoot length (40.79 cm), shoot fresh weight plant(-1) (10.15 g) and shoot dry weight plant(-1) (1.81 g), was recorded in Balochistan-Local. Haider-93 produced highest root length (20.31 cm). Frontier-87 exhibited maximum shoot Na+/K+ ratio (1.49) and maximum shoot proline content of 144.31 mu g g(-1) fresh weight was recorded from KPK-Local. Seed priming had distinctly enhanced all the above mentioned parameters except shoot Na+/K+ ratio. It is concluded that salinity stresses had affected all parameters under study however; seed priming with NaCl had alleviated the adverse effects of salinity in barely genotypes.