Seed priming using different agents can alleviate salt stress in kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) by activating antioxidant system and related genes expression

Renxue Li; Dengjie Luo; Muzammal Rehman; Xin Li; Caijin Wang; Shan Cao; Guofeng Xu; Meng Wang; Canni Chen; Jingzhi Nie; Ru Li; Tao Chen; Peng Chen

doi:10.1007/s12298-024-01521-x

Seed priming using different agents can alleviate salt stress in kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) by activating antioxidant system and related genes expression

Physiol Mol Biol Plants. 2024 Oct;30(10):1741-1757. doi: 10.1007/s12298-024-01521-x. Epub 2024 Oct 22.

Authors

Renxue Li¹, Dengjie Luo¹, Muzammal Rehman¹, Xin Li¹, Caijin Wang¹, Shan Cao¹, Guofeng Xu¹, Meng Wang¹, Canni Chen¹, Jingzhi Nie¹, Ru Li², Tao Chen³, Peng Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Agriculture, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Agro-Environment and Agric-Products Safety; Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Breeding and Germplasm Innovation, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004 China.
² College of Life Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004 China.
³ Guangxi Subtropical Crops Research Institute, Nanning, 530004 China.

PMID: 39506993
PMCID: PMC11534967 (available on 2025-10-01)
DOI: 10.1007/s12298-024-01521-x

Abstract

High salinity is an abiotic stress that limits crop production. Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) is an annual fiber crop of the genus Hibiscus in the family Malvaceae with a certain tolerance to salt stress. Seed priming has been shown to ameliorate the adverse effects of salt stress on plants. However, the salt resistance mechanism in kenaf seeds treated with priming agents is not fully understood. In this study, we used four priming agents (H₂O, PEG, ABA, KNO₃) in different concentrations to treat kenaf seeds, and subjected the induced kenaf seedlings to salt stress (150 mM NaCl) to measure their agronomic traits and physiological and biochemical indicators. Our results indicate that the optimal priming concentration for PEG was 10%, 0.5 μM for ABA, and 0.5% for KNO₃. Under these treatment concentrations, the germination rate of kenaf was significantly increased, and the fresh weight was also increased by 35.1%, 33.39%, 20.78% and 15.3%, respectively. Furthermore, the use of priming agents can alleviate the adverse effects of salt stress to a certain extent, significantly increase the agronomic indicators such as plant height, stem thickness, and leaf area of kenaf, enhance the ability of plants to perform photosynthesis, further improve the activity of antioxidant enzymes and increase the content of osmotic material, and reduce the accumulation of cell H₂O₂, O₂ ^- and MDA. Meanwhile, seed priming can also enhance the expression of HcSOS1, HcNHX, HcHKT, HcCBL, HcCIPK, HcPD and HcNCED involved in the salt stress pathway. These results warrant that seed priming can reduce the adverse effects of salt stress on kenaf.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-024-01521-x.

Keywords: Biochemical response; Gene expression; Kenaf; Salt stress; Seed germination; Seed priming.

© Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society 2024. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.