Speaker
Description
Global food security is constantly threatened by a range of detrimental abiotic stresses, including salinity emerging as a serious challenge for conventional crop production and hence adversely food and feed availability. In light of this pressing limitation, the prompt implementation of various interventions, including the cultivation of salt-tolerant crops like quinoa, has become an imperative solution to adapt to this issue and ensure sustainable agricultural production. Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) has been introduced in Morocco as a promising alternative crop due to its exceptional attributes mainly its tolerance to salinity. Nonetheless, the impact of salinity on quinoa's physiological performance remains a concern, particularly during the critical germination stage, which is known to be vulnerable to salinity-induced stress. The aim of this research was to assess the influence of seven distinct seed priming solutions on the salinity tolerance of three quinoa varieties (Titicaca, ICBA-Q5, and Puno) during the germination phase under two high salinity stress levels (300 & 400 mM of NaCl). Different priming treatments were applied to seeds, including chemical priming using zinc sulfate (ZnSO4) and sodium metasilicate (Na2O3Si), biopriming utilizing raw plant extracts of halophytes such as Peganum harmala (Ph), Suaeda vermiculata (Su), and Atriplex halimus (Ah), as well as seaweed raw extract of Fucus spiralis (Fs), and finally, Rosmarinus officinalis hydrolat (Rh). Negative controls with no priming for both salinity stress levels (C-300 & C-400) and positive controls with no priming and no salinity stress were considered. The results showed significant increases in the final germination percentage “FGP” especially under 300mM NaCl, and mainly by the treatments Zs, Si, Ah & Rh. For instance, for ICBA-Q5 seeds germinated under 300 mM of NaCl, Zs and Rh increased their FGP respectively by 70.23% and 54.76% compared to the negative control, and increased by 91.2%, 95.8% and 84.45% respectively for Zs, Si and Ah compared to C-300 for Puno, for Titicaca the increase was more pronounced by 84.2% for Zs by & 86% for Si compared the negative control. The mean germination time “MGT” was significantly reduced by most of the tested treatments as compared to their negative controls, especially for the treatments mentioned before for each variety.
