Seed Priming to Improve Tomato Productivity in Salinity Stressed Environments: A Review

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) berries are in great demand across the globe for their nutritive and therapeutic properties. As agriculture land and fresh water resources are limited, the possibility of increasing the production of tomato is either by utilizing unproductive salt affected land for cultivation or unportable water high in salts for irrigation. Tomato is relatively susceptible to salinity during seed germination and seedling establishment phase. However, rapid and synchronized seed germination is essential for proper stand establishment in tomato for increasing its production in salinity stressed environments. Seed priming, a simple and lucrative approach for easing salt stress during the germination phase, is gaining popularity in tomato. Priming improves germination response and brings about certain biochemical changes that help primed tomato seeds to survive and grow under harsh conditions of salinity. This review discusses some of the seed priming methods such as hydropriming, osmopriming, solid matrix priming, hormonal priming, chemical priming, biopriming and physical priming that successfully mitigated the harmful effects of salt stress in tomatoes. Seed priming thus paves the way for utilization of saline land for growing tomato resulting in increased productivity and an improvement in tomato supply chain amidst rising demands.