The effects of different levels of salinity and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) on early growth and germination of wheat seedling

Salt stress as a major adverse factor can lower germination, ion toxicity, reduction in enzymatic and photosynthetic efficiency and other physiological disorders and ultimately lower crop productivity in salinity zones. As growth regulators are involved in altering growth processes in plants, it is possible that they might even reduce the detrimental effects of salinity by stimulating growth. But their physiological roles are not well known. In example, about the roles of IAA in salinity conditions are not similar viewpoints. For this purpose a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design was conducted with influence of foliar application of Indole-3-Acetic Acid (IAA) in farm on germination percent and seedling growth parameters of wheat (cv. Marvdasht) under different levels (0, 40, 80 and 120 mM) of NaCl salinity with 3 replications, during 2012 in the laboratory research of the Department of plant breading and agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Maragheh University in Maragheh state in Iran. The results of this study indicate, that salinity decreased the plumule, radicle and seedling length and plumule, radicle and seedling dry weight, seed germination and seedling vigor index, whereas increase in mean germination time and no signification plumule/radicle ratio observed in the cultivar tested. Also, application of IAA at cell division stage of grain growth caused significant increase in seedling growth parameters under different salinity levels. The interaction between application of IAA and salinity levels significantly affected final germination percentage. Highest final germination percentage was recorded with IAA with increasing salinity level from 0 up to 120 mM NaCl (98.3, 98.3, 96.7 and 100% without significant differences between them, respectively).