Seed reserve utilization and seedling growth of wheat as affected by drought and salinity

In germination stage, decreased wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedling growth (mg per seedling) as affected by drought and salinity stresses is a well-known phenomenon. The heterotrophic seedling growth can be defined as a product of two components: (1) the weight of mobilized seed reserve (WMSR; mg per seed), and (2) the conversion efficiency of utilized seed reserve to seedling tissue (mg seedling dry weight (SLDW) per mg utilized seed reserve). The first component can be further divided into (1) initial seed weight (mg per seed), and (2) the fraction of seed reserve, which is mobilized (mg mobilized seed reserve per mg initial seed weight). The objective of this study was the identification of the sensitive seedling growth component(s) in response to drought and salinity stresses. Two experiments were separately conducted using various osmotic pressures (OP) induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG; 0–1.8 MPa, with interval of 0.2) in experiment 1 and by NaCl (0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.2 and 1.6 MPa) in experiment 2. Two wheat cultivars were used in each experiment. In both experiments, seedling growth, fraction of seed reserve utilization and weight of mobilized seed reserve decreased with increasing drought and salt intensity. However, drought and salinity stresses had no effect on the conversion efficiency. It was concluded that the sensitive component of seedling growth is the weight of mobilized seed reserve. Thus, appropriate efforts such as plant breeding programs should be focused on improvement of seed reserve mobilization in order to obtain increased seedling growth under drought and salinity stresses.