Agricultural Research Journal

In the present study, effect of seed priming with abscissic acid (ABA 5 μM) on response of cotton seedlings (tolerant and susceptible to salinity stress (18 dS/m) was investigated. Fifteen day old seedlings registered decrease in shoot length (50.6%) and root length (41.6%), shoot weight (50%) and root weight (41%), leaf relative water content (26%), chlorophyll content (56%) and Fv/Fm (12.9%) in susceptible cotton genotypes to greater degree than the tolerant ones in response to salinity. However proline, glycine, betaine, and total sugars registered an increase. The increase was even more with ABA priming (with salinity) in susceptible seedling leaves. ABA treatment also had positive effect on the physiological and growth parameters. Thus, ABA seed pre-treatment ameliorated the negative impact of salinity stress in susceptible cotton seedlings.