Seed Germination and Growth of Plants under Abiotic Stress

A special issue of Biology (ISSN 2079-7737).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2017) | Viewed by 16508

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Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh
Interests: antioxidants; abiotic stress tolerance; plant metabolites; ROS signaling
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In a changing world, plants are continuously suffering from various abiotic stresses such as salt, drought, metal toxicity, high temperature, chilling, flooding and so on. These adversities influence plant stands and their yield and reduction in seed germination and subsequent growth are unfortunate consequences. Seed is fundamental in agriculture, especially in crop production. Therefore, the quality of seed must be kept under consideration. As seeds are the biological products they can deteriorate both in storage and in varying field conditions. And, as a result, germination is hampered. Loss of seed germination as well as vigority affects crop production negatively. Therefore, ensuring proper seed germination is one of the prime goals of plant biologists and agronomists. Seeds are practically worthless if, upon planting, they fail to give adequate plant stands in addition to healthy and vigorous plants. Therefore, approaches to overcome the effect of abiotic stress are vital to ensure better plant stands under such conditions. This Special Issue will focus on recent works regarding the effect of abiotic stress on seed germination and growth of plants. We welcome both research article and reviews.

Prof. Dr. Masayuki Fujita
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mirza Hasanuzzaman
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • seed biology
  • seed vigor
  • abiotic stress
  • salinity
  • drought
  • oxidative stress
  • agronomy
  • botan

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

2049 KiB  
Article
Seed Coating with Hydro-Absorbers as Potential Mitigation of Early Season Drought in Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench)
by Linda Gorim and Folkard Asch
Biology 2017, 6(3), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology6030033 - 31 Jul 2017
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5200
Abstract
Climate change poses a threat to sorghum production systems by shifting the onset of the rainy season to a later date, increasing the risk of crop failure during crop establishment. The effects of drought on sorghum during seedling establishment have not been determined. [...] Read more.
Climate change poses a threat to sorghum production systems by shifting the onset of the rainy season to a later date, increasing the risk of crop failure during crop establishment. The effects of drought on sorghum during seedling establishment have not been determined. Coating seeds with a water absorbing substance offers a way to buffer the seed against insufficient moisture in the surrounding soil. Seeds of two different sorghum varieties were coated with one of two commercially available hydro-absorbers: Stokosorb® and Geohumus®. These hydro-absorbers have the capacity to store water several times their own weight. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of the cited hydro-absorbers on early seedling growth of two sorghum landraces under different levels of soil water deficit. Seedlings were grown for 12 days under three water availability levels (Field capacity (FC), 50% of FC, and 25% of FC). The seedlings under water limited treatments were subsequently re-watered. Biomass, root length, plant height, leaf area, and leaf extension rate were monitored in two-day intervals for 24 days. Coating strongly affected seedling growth both under fully watered and water deficit conditions. Sorghum varieties differed in their responses to both soil water deficit and coating materials. In general, Stockosorb improved seedling performance under water limited conditions particularly by promoting root growth, whereas Geohumus did not. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seed Germination and Growth of Plants under Abiotic Stress)
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2393 KiB  
Article
Seed Coating Increases Seed Moisture Uptake and Restricts Embryonic Oxygen Availability in Germinating Cereal Seeds
by Linda Gorim and Folkard Asch
Biology 2017, 6(2), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology6020031 - 24 May 2017
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 8761
Abstract
Seed coating is a technology to improve germination and homogenize stand establishment. Although coating often results in lower germination rates, seeds that do germinate grow more vigorously and show strongly reduced respiratory losses during reserve mobilization. We hypothesize that the higher mobilization efficiency [...] Read more.
Seed coating is a technology to improve germination and homogenize stand establishment. Although coating often results in lower germination rates, seeds that do germinate grow more vigorously and show strongly reduced respiratory losses during reserve mobilization. We hypothesize that the higher mobilization efficiency is due to a shift in the enzymatic cleavage of sucrose from invertase to sucrose synthase in the embryonic tissue caused by a reduced oxygen availability induced by oversaturation with water caused by the coating during early germination. We investigated the effect of coating on barley, rye, and wheat seed imbibition during the first 30 h after seeds were placed in moisture. We profiled oxygen in the embryos and measured sucrose and acid invertase levels as imbibition progressed. We found that seeds within coatings absorbed significantly more moisture than uncoated seeds. Coating resulted in near anoxic oxygen concentrations in the developing embryonic tissues in all three species. In barley, sucrose was not cleaved via the invertase pathway, despite the fact that invertase activity in coated seeds was increased. In rye and wheat, invertase activities were significantly lower in embryos from coated seeds without significantly changing the sugar composition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seed Germination and Growth of Plants under Abiotic Stress)
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