Biological Priming: An Eco-Friendly Alternative for Inducing Salinity Tolerance and Augmenting Plant Growth in Brassica juncea

Abstract

High salinity injury is one of the critical factors that limit crop yields and quality internationally especially in hot and semi hot areas. Brassica juncea otherwise called as Indian mustard is a significant oilseed crop tender to saline stress. In this work, a possibility of the biological priming treatment application as the environmentally friendly method for increasing the plants’ salt tolerance and growth rate of Brassica juncea plants is described. This study was carried out at Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Naini Agricultural Institute, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh during rabi 2021-22. The experiment was carried out in factorial complete randomized design including 15 genotypes of mustard treated with 16 treatments of NaCl (20, 40 and 60%) and PGPR (Bacillus cereus, Aeromonas media and Rhizobium alamii). Various quantitative characters and qualitative characters were observed and studied. In this research we only highlighted the seed yield, chlorophyll content, proline and protein content as these observations are vital for salinity tolerance. The traits which exhibit positive effects on seed yield would be considered for the breeding programmes. Hence, RLM-619, RH-761, and P21-KANTI genotypes with PGPR-1, PGPR-2, and PGPR-3 treatments are most effective for increasing seed yield per plant, using strategies like plant breeding, genetic engineering, and seed biopriming for improving the tolerance against the salinity. Hence, this study clearly discusses the effectiveness of the biological priming strategy as a cost effective and eco-friendly method of combating the effect of salinity stress as well as enhancing plant growth and yield of Brassica juncea in salt affected zones of agriculture.