Positive Effects of Karrikin on Seed Germination of Three Medicinal Herbs Under Drought Stress Shiraz University M
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Iran Agricultural Research (2016) 35(2) 57-64 Positive effects of karrikin on seed germination of three medicinal herbs under drought stress Shiraz University M. MousaviNik1, A. Jowkar2* , A. RahimianBoogar2 1Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, University of Zabol, Zabol, I. R. Iran 2 Department of Horticultural Science, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, I. R. Iran *Corresponding Author: [email protected] ARTICLE INFO Article history: ABSTRACT- Improper seed germination is a serious challenge for medicinal herbs under drought stress conditions in semi-arid and arid regions. A new group of plant Received 10 March 2015 growth regulators known as karrikins have been proved useful to improve seed 2 2016 Accepted May germination in some plants. In this regard, the effects of karrikin on seed germination Available online 3 August 2016 and vigor of three medicinals under drought stress were examined. Seeds of Trachyspermum copticum (L.) Link, Foeniculum vulgare Miller, and Cuminum Keywords: cyminum L. were sowed under drought treatments (-1, -1.5, -2 and -2.5 MPa of PEG Cuminum cyminum 6000), with and without synthetic Karrikin GR24 (10µM). Results indicated increasing Foeniculum vulgare osmotic pressure seed germination characteristics were severely reduced; however, Seed vigor karrikin significantly increased the seed germination of the three herbs. The application Strigolactone of karrikin in all drought conditions significantly increased germination percentage, Trachyspermum copticum germination rate, germination index, seedling vigor, shoot length and radicle length of all herb seedlings. Ajwain (T. copticum) showed a greater drought tolerance compared to the other medicinal species. INTRODUCTION Drought stress is the major limiting factor for plant germination of many plant species (Halford, 2010; production in semi-arid and arid regions. Seed Ghebrehiwot et al., 2013). The beneficial effect of germination of plants, as a serious life cycle and a karrikin on seed germination and seedling development prerequisite of plant production, is severely affected by is described greater than the effect of fire in the water deficiency (Li et al., 2011; Rauf et al., 2007; ecology (Chiwocha et al., 2009). Rivas Arancibia et al., 2006; Zeng et al., 2010). Three important medicinal plants of Iran with Subsequently, poor seed germination causes weak magnificent therapeutic properties are Trachyspermum seedling growth and abnormality and finally reduces copticum (L.) Link (Hedge and Lamond, 1987), plant yield (Mos et al., 2007; Sun et al., 2010; Zeng et Foeniculum vulgare Miller (Bahmani et al., 2013) and al., 2010). Different studies have shown that water Cuminum cyminum L. (Niazi and Raja, 1971). On the stress increases the mean time of seed germination and other hand, these herbs risk reduced seed germination delays plant production (Kaya et al., 2006; Li et al., due to prolonged drought periods of the semi-arid and 2011). Exogenous use of chemicals that makes the arid regions of Iran (Akhavan Armaki et al., 2013). The plant tolerant and starts defense responses has been main objective of this study is to examine karrikin’s extensively studied (Kissoudis et al., 2014). One of the role on seed germination of ajwain, fennel and cumin priming techniques is smoke extract which has been under different drought stress treatments. Furthermore, reported to improve seed germination in various plants the most responsive herb to exogenous application of (Chiwocha et al., 2009; Ghebrehiwot et al., 2013; this new PGR is evaluated. Coons et al., 2014). This stimulatory effect of smoke on germination has been attributed to karrikinolide activity. Karrikinolide is an active chemical compound MATERIALS AND METHODS of butenolide or 3-methyl-2H-furo [2, 3-c] pyran-2-one formula, which is totally called karrikins, a Noongar Experimental Plants and Laboratory Condition word for ‘smoke’ (Chiwocha et al., 2009; Halford, 2010; Long et al., 2011; Nair et al., 2012). Karrikins The seeds of Trachyspermum copticum (L.) Link, are a newly discovered group of plant growth Foeniculum vulgare Miller, and Cuminum cyminum L. regulators (Yamada et al., 2014), effective for were put in scientific™ sterilin™ standard 90mm Petri removing seed eco-dormancy and improving the MousaviNik et al. / Iran Agricultural Research (2016) 35(2) 57-64 dishes in August 2012 with a day/night temperature of using SPSS V.19, and means were compared by LSD 25/20 °C and 55 - 65% relative humidity. test of ANOVA at a significant level of P≤ 0.05. Drought Stress Treatments RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Drought stress was implemented using PEG 6000 with osmotic pressures of 0, -1, -1.5, -2 and -2.5 MPa. Germination Percentage Karrikin Treatments Drought stress significantly decreased the germination percentage of the seeds among which the severest 30 ml of freshly prepared synthetic karrikin GR24 decline was observed at -2.5 MPa osmotic pressure. solution (Chiralix, The Netherlands) with a stimulating Karrikin application significantly improved the concentration of 10 µM was applied in each Petri dish percentage of seed germination of all herbs. A double for seed imbibitions. Each drought stress treatment was increase was detected at -1.5 MPa for T. copticum. (p < accompanied by a control without karrikin. 0.01) (Fig. 1). Measured Characteristics Germination Rate Germination was determined by 2 mm exposure of Drought stress significantly decreased the germination radicle, and recorded twice daily for the subsequent 14 rate of the medicinals’ seeds among which the severest days. The germination characteristics shoot and radicle decline was at -2.5 MPa osmotic pressure. On the other length (Guterres et al., 2013), germination percentage hand, karrikin application significantly improved the (ISTA, 2008), germination rate (Maguire, 1962), rate of seed germination (P < 0.01) (Fig. 2). The extent germination index (Tekrony et al., 1991) and seedling of the effect of karrikin on the rate and percentage of vigor (Agrawal, 2002) were measured as follows: germination differed between species and drought Germination percentage (GP) = S/T × 100 treatments. The greatest enhancement of germination Germination rate (GR) = (Σ Ni/Di)/S rate by karrikin was observed at drought level of -2 Germination index (GI) = (number of new seedlings MPa for T. copticum. (Fig. 2). after day n1/ n1) + (number of new seedlings after day n2/ n2) +................ + (number of new seedlings after Germination Index day ni/ ni). Seedling vigor = (RL+SL) × GP The germination index of all investigated species was S: Number of germinated seeds significantly decreased by drought stress among which T: Total number of seeds the utmost decline was seen at -2.5 MPa osmotic Ni: The number of germinated seeds in Di (day) pressure (P<0.01) (Fig. 3). Karrikin use in drought RL: Root length stress conditions improved the germination index of all SL: Shoot length of the herbs significantly (p<0.01), among which the highest effect was obtained at -1.5 MPa for T. Experiment Design and Data Analysis copticum. (Fig. 3). Experiments were conducted in a complete randomized design with four replicates. Analysis of data was done . Fig. 1. The effect of exogenous karrikin on germination percentage of herbs’ seed under drought stress conditions 58 MousaviNik et al. / Iran Agricultural Research (2016) 35(2) 57-64 Fig. 2. The effect of exogenous karrikin on germination rate of herbs’ seed under drought stress conditions Fig. 3. The effect of exogenous karrikin on germination index of herbs’ seed under drought stress conditions Seedling Vigor The application of karrikin enhanced the shoot length of the seeds among which F. vulgare showed the most The seed vigor of seeds was significantly deteriorated improvement compared to other herbs. (p < 0.01) (Fig. starting from the lowest level of drought stress. The 5). harsh osmotic conditions greatly reduced the seed vigor of F. vulgare compared to the other species. Seed vigor Radicle Length of all species was reduced to near zero at drought level of -1.5 MPa, but the addition of karrikin doubled the The radicle length of all seeds was significantly seed vigor of the herbs among which the most increase lessened by all drought stress levels. The greatest was achieved for T. copticum. (P< 0.01) (Fig. 4). decline of radicle length was determined at drought level of -2.5 MPa. The application of karrikin enhanced Shoot Length the radicle length of the seeds among which T. copticum showed the most improved growth compared to other The shoot length of all seeds was significantly herbs (P < 0.01) (Fig. 6). diminished by drought stress. The greatest reduction of shoot length was recorded at drought level of -2.5 MPa. 59 MousaviNik et al. / Iran Agricultural Research (2016) 35(2) 57-64 Fig. 4. The effect of exogenous karrikin on seedling vigor of herbs’ seed under drought stress conditions Fig. 5. The effect of exogenous karrikin on shoot length of herbs’ seed under drought stress conditions Fig. 6. The effect of exogenous karrikin on radicle length of herbs’ seed under drought stress conditions 60 MousaviNik et al. / Iran Agricultural Research (2016) 35(2) 57-64 Drought stress effectively reduced the seed germination regulatory role in Arabidopsis and enhanced drought and vigor of the medicinal herbs as seen in other plants tolerance of the plants. They showed that plants (Kaya et al., 2006; Van den Berg and Zeng, 2006; Mos incorporate multiple hormone-response pathways—at et al., 2007; Sun et al., 2010). Various chemicals have least karrikin, abscisic acid, and cytokinin pathways— been proposed to improve the plants tolerance to for adapting to ecological stress. Their studies proved drought stress conditions including tryptophan (Rao et that genetic regulation of karrikin content/response al., 2012), glycinebetaine (Giri, 2011; Zhang et al., could provide a new way for the development of crops 2013), humic acid (Zhang et al., 2013), nitric oxide with advanced drought tolerance (Ha et al., 2014). (Rahimian Boogar et al., 2014), brassinosteroid In the present study, karrikin had its most significant (Behnamnia et al., 2009; Gomes et al., 2013), β-ABA mitigating effect on seed germination of T.