Impact of seed priming on the modulation of physico-chemical and molecular processes during germination, growth, and development of crops

Abstract

Seed is the prime input in agriculture sector, and production of quality seed is the immense challenge in front of agriculturist to achieve the goal of food security. Present sceario emphasis that the world population is increasing day by day resulting to quick exhaustion of natural resources leading to climate change which accelerates the issue of abiotic (heat, cold, drought, and salt) and biotic stress in plants. These abiotic and biotic stresses are often interrelated and cause undesirable physiological, morphological, biochemical, and molecular change that affect plant growth and development and ultimately yield. Time to time various plant breeding and molecular techniques developed to solve the problem of abiotic and biotic stresses. However, alternatively, some simple and economical techniques are also in race to address this problem. Seed priming is one of them, approved by many agriculturists for better crop stand establishment and growth, even under adverse environmental conditions. The present chapter deals with the different types of seed priming methods and their scope in mitigating abiotic and biotic stresses. Further, mechanisms of seed "priming-induced" physiological, biochemical, and molecular changes in regulation to stress tolerance were extensively explained in the light of the latest research work carried in this direction.