Salicylic Acid and Chilling Stress – A Review

Chilling stress or low-temperature result in reduced seed germination and vigour by influencing various physiological and biochemical processes in plants. It also leads to other types of stresses like osmotic and oxidative stress, causing an increase in reactive oxygen species and hence damage to the membrane lipids and other biomolecules. Salicylic acid (SA), a phenolic compound, has been found to play an important role in providing chilling tolerance to the plant by affecting various physiological and biochemical processes in plants. In this paper, the role of SA during seed germination at chilling or low temperature has been discussed.