The effect of nano-micronutrients seed priming on germinability of Kabuli chickpea

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1 Current Opinion in Agriculture Curr. Opin. Agric (1), The effect of nano-micronutrients seed priming on germinability of Kabuli chickpea Zahra Sayadiazar 1, Maryam Mohammadzadeh 1,Robab Morsali 1, Ahmad Aghaee 2* 1 University of Maragheh, Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Maragheh, 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Maragheh, P.O. Box , Iran. * Corresponding author's aghaee2001@yahoo.com Abstract Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the third most extensively planted grain legume in the world after dry bean and field pea. Priming in is a pre-sowing seed invigoration technique in which the seeds are pre-soaked before planting. Micronutrient seed priming include seed priming with nutrients solutions and sowing seeds enriched in micronutrients can be agronomically beneficial. Current study carried out to evaluate seed pre-sowing treatment in the different solution of nano oxide iron and zinc (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 mg) on germination and seedling growth of Kabuli chickpea under laboratory condition. Results revealed that seed soaking in distilled water significantly improved the germination percentage and rate in comparison with intact seeds. The longest and the heaviest seedlings were recorded for seed soaked in 5 mg nano-iron solution which followed by 15 mg nano-iron. The positive effects of seed priming in nano-zinc solution were not considerable and prominent when compared with nano-iron solution. Overall, the results showed that high concentrations of nano-scaled micronutrient can be toxic for seedling growth and this status was more evident for iron oxide nano-particles. Seed priming with diluted solution of nano-iron was more efficient for improving seeding growth. Keywords: Dry weight, Germination rate, Micronutrient treatments, Nano oxide iron, Seedling index Introduction Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the most important cool-season legumes of the family Fabaceae which is grown in the semiarid and Mediterranean regions like as Turkey, Iran, India (FAO, 2014). Chickpea is one of the earliest cultivated crops and is considered as the third most consumed food legume. Chickpea provides a high quality protein to the people in developing countries and it can play a key role to alleviate protein energy malnutrition (Manjunatha, 2007). World population is growing rapidly and it has nearly doubled over the last century, on the other part progress in the pulse production is not sufficient to meet the requirements of an ever increasing market demand. Hence, it can bring a serious challenge on the food security, especially in the developing countries. However, the considerable parts of chickpeas production are related to semi-arid areas. The semi-arid tropics cover parts of 55 developing countries. These areas have a population of over 1.4 billion, of whom 560 million are classified as poor. Of the total poor, 70% live in rural areas. The main features of the semi-arid climate are a short rainy season, intensive rainfall interspersed with unpredictable droughts, and highly variable rainfall during the wet season. However, in Iran the duration of the rainy season is very short, and potential evapotranspiration is very high. So that the spring crops are faced with drought and heat stress during the reproductive growth stage (Ryan and Spencer, 2001).Generally, legumes are highly sensitive to water deficit stress and it have mentioned that chickpea seed yield decreased by 50% when stressed during pod formation and 44% when stressed during flowering (Labidi et al., 2009). Micronutrients are chemical elements essential for plant growth and are necessary in small quantities and although their participation is small, the absence of any one of them can result in significant reductions in productivity (Tavares et al., 2013.Micronutrient deficiencies are common problem in semiarid regions. It has been estimated that roughly 40% of people throughout the world suffer from micronutrient malnutrition, most commonly from iron, zinc, iodine, or various vitamin deficiencies. Among the micronutrients, iron and zinc are essential for crop growth and food production.iron (Fe) is involved in the production of chlorophyll, photosynthesis, mitochondrial respiration, hormone biosynthesis (ethylene, gibberellic acid, jasmonic acid), production and scavenging of reactive oxygen species and osmoprotection (Marschner 2012). Besides, zinc is a necessary component of various enzyme systems for energy production, protein synthesis, energy production, maintains the structural integrity of biomembranes and growth regulation (Alloway, 2008; Hänsch and Mendel, 2009; Marschner 2012).A large part ofcultivated area in Iran is zinc deficient. Zinc deficiency is3 rd themost important soil nutrition issue after nitrogen and phosphorus. In more parts of semi-arid areas (Rashid, 1996). These nutrients play a vital role in germination and healthy seedling establishment in chickpea. Furthermore, it has been revealed that improving plant micronutrient status in situations where micronutrient nutrition is inadequately supplied from the soil would increase yield (Farooq et al., 2012).Seed priming was defined as pre-sowing treatments in water or in an osmotic solution that allows seed to imbibe water to proceed to the first stage of germination, but prevents radicle protrusion through the seed coat. Seed treatment with micronutrients is an attractive and cost effective alternative to soil reserves of these elements. Research in literature review showed that seed priming with ZnSO 4 (0.4%) was effective to meet Zn requirements of wheat with a mean yield (mean of eight on-farm trials) increase of 615 kg ha -1 (21%) compared with crops from non-primed seed (Harris et al., 2005).

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