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Alleviation of inhibition of germination by ethylene in salt-stressed alfalfa seeds

Li Zhenguo, Ni Jundi, Yu Shuwen

Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Shanghai 200032

Abstract

Under nonsaline condition the addition of exogenous ethylene promoted germination of alfalfa seeds, but did not affect the final gertmination rate (Fig.1). Salinity severely inhibited germination of alfalfa seeds. The addition of 1 to 50#mu#l/L(v/v)ethylene to the atmosphere surrounding the seeds significantly alleviated the inhibition of seed germination by NaCl(Fig.2). So did the addition of ACC(0.1~5.0mmol/L, Fig.3) or ethephon(5~100mg/L, Fig.6)to the incubation medium. Kinetin(KT) had the similar effect, and in addition it could enhance the ethylene production in germinating seeds. A combination of ACC and KT synergistically promoted germination of seeds under stress condition (Fig.4). A enhancement of ethylene production occurred under NaCl stress in the presence of KT+ACC(Fig.5). Alfalfa seeds soaked in 0.25 mol NaCl/L solution for 72 h did not germinate at all. Under salinity stress through ethylene or ethephon treatment promoted seed germination, it reduced the shoot fresh weight and hypocotyl length of gertminated seeds as compared with control (--NaCl).

Key words: Alfalfa;Germination;Ethylene;Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid(ACC); Ethephon;NaCl

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Citing This Article：

Li Zhenguo, Ni Jundi, Yu Shuwen. Alleviation of inhibition of germination by ethylene in salt-stressed alfalfa seeds. Acta Physiol Sin 1995; 47 (1): (in Chinese with English abstract).