Seed priming with plant growth regulators to improve crop abiotic stress tolerance

Abstract

Plants are frequently subjected to abiotic stress such as drought, salinity, heat, and cold which constitutes a major limitation to agricultural production worldwide. The unfavorable environmental conditions that plants encounter in vegetative cycle perturb their metabolic reactions and negatively affect growth at cellular and biochemical plant levels. Preventing crop losses and generating more food to meet the demands of growing human populations have gained importance. Identifying plant mechanisms to neutralize abiotic stresses and sustain their growth and survival under unfavorable conditions holds huge importance. Research studies have revealed that plant growth regulators (PGR) confirm their significance as metabolic engineering targets for producing abiotic stresstolerant crop plants. In addition, seed priming has shown its importance as a powerful technique to improve germination, growth, and yield of crops under unfavorable environment conditions. The combination of the two effects, seed priming with PGR, could have very prevailing results. In this context, during this chapter, we evaluate the effect of seed priming with PGR in plant growth development and abiotic stress tolerance.