Pretreatment of Seed With Hydrogen Peroxide for Mitigating Salt Stress of Some Hungarian Wheat Landraces at Seedlings Stage

Salt stress is a stringent problem limiting germination and productivity of wheat all over the world, seed pretreatment can effectively induce salt tolerance. The present experiment conducted to investigate the germination, seedling and chemical parameters response of seven Hungarian wheat Landraces (Szentesi, Nyirádi, Kiszombori, Háromfai, Tapiószelei, Nagykállói and Szajlai) to seed soaking at four levels of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) i.e. control, 0.5,.0 and 1.5% subjected to five levels of salt stress (control, 3.0, 6.0, 9.0 and 2.0 dSm⁻¹). Treatments were arranged in Factorial Experimental based on Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four replications. Under non-saline and salt stress H₂O₂ soaking significantly influenced all parameters. Soaking at 1.5% resulted the highest germination ability, seedling parameters, relative water content (RWC%), tolerance index (TI%) and potassium (K+ ppm) as well proline level in parallel with the lowest sodium content. However, wheat landraces responded differently to the treatments. Háromfai landrace came in the first rank followed by Tapiószelei, Kiszombori, Szajlai, Nyirádi, Szentesi and Nagykállói landraces. Háromfai landrace resulted the highest values of germination parameters, RWC, TI, K⁺ and proline contents. At the same time, the maximum values of Na⁺ content was detected in reverse order. Increasing salinity stress levels from 3.0 to 12.0 dSm⁻¹' significantly decreased all studied character except Na⁺ which was increased as compared with control treatment. Therefore, pretreatment of seeds with 1.5 % of H₂O₂ increased proline and K+ in contrast to the Na⁺ content. These results suggest that H₂O₂ pretreatment helps to increase seedlings growth of Háromfai landrace under high salt stress compared to the other examined wheat landraces.