Improving Drought Tolerance in Maize (Zea mays L.) by Osmopriming and Biopriming

Abstract

Drought causes morphological, physiological and metabolic fluctuations in plants due to which plant growth and development
reduced. To alleviate drought stress osmopriming and bio-priming techniques were used in the present study. Seed priming is
effective and low-cost technique in which seeds are primed with low osmotic solution or inoculated with plant growth promoting
rhizo-bacteria. These bacteria mostly present in the plant rhizosphere form colonies with plant roots and enhance the plant
growth. In this research work, Bacillus subtilis and CaCl2 were used as priming agent. Different levels of treatment were applied on
three maize varieties (Islam gold, Daka posh and MCEV1530-6) and its effect was studied. Osmopriming and biopriming both
showed positive effects on root growth, shoot growth, proline content, protein, chlorophyll, antioxidants and sugar contents. The
agronomic traits like cob length, number of grains per cob, number of grains per row, plant height and yield per plant were
increased at maturity by withholding water for 7 days at grain filling stage. Biopriming with Bacillus subtilis showed more
effective results as compared to osmopriming. Out of three maize varieties Islam gold variety showed more vigorous growth as
compared to Daka posh and MCEV 1530-6. It was concluded that osmopriming and biopriming has positive effects on plant
growth and development under drought stress but combination of osmo-biopriming treatments gave more positive and effective
results.