21 The Korean Society of Crop Science J. Crop Sci. Biotech. 2015 (March) 18 (1) : 21 ~ 26 RESEARCH ARTICLE DOI No. 10.1007/s12892-014-0078-1 Seed Halopriming Improves the Germination Performance of Black Seed (Nigella sativa) under Salinity Stress Conditions Mahdiyeh Gholami*, Faezeh Mokhtarian, Bahram Baninasab Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran Received: July 16, 2014 / Revised: December 2, 2014 / Accepted: December 9, 2014 Ⓒ Korean Society of Crop Science and Springer 2015 Abstract Soil salinity is one of the most serious agricultural problems. There are many biological strategies by which salinity tolerance of potential crops can be increased. The ameliorative efficiency of salt priming on emergence and seedling growth was examined in black seed (Nigella sativa), a valuable medicinal herb. The seeds were soaked for 24 h at 25ºC in the dark in distilled water (control) or 1 or 2% of KNO3, CaCl2, NaCl, ZnSO4, or CuSO4. After the all treatments, the seeds were washed with distilled water and sown. Although all priming agents were effective in alleviating adverse effects of salt stress on black seed at germination stage, NaCl proved to be the most effective since the seeds primed with this salt had significantly higher germination performance than those treated with other salts or distilled water. Next to NaCl, KNO3, CaCl2, and ZnSO4 were also effective in promoting seed germination and early growth under saline conditions. Key words : medicinal crops, NaCl, priming, salinity tolerance, salt High salinity is the most widespread soil problem limi- ting plant distribution and productivity (Qin et al. 2010). Coping with salinity stress in order to sustain food produ- ction is a major issue in many arid and semiarid regions (Kaya et al. 2013). The biological approach to this problem focuses on the management, exploitation, or development of plants able to thrive on salt-affected soils (Ashraf et al. 2008). Seed priming is one of the biological strategies by which salinity tolerance of potential crops can be increased. In priming, seeds are exposed to restricted water availability under controlled conditions which allows some of the physi- ological processes of germination to occur, before germina- tion is completed (Sharma et al. 2014). In plant defense, priming is defined as a physiological process which have a plant prepare to respond to imminent abiotic stress more quickly or forcefully (Jisha et al. 2013). Many studies have shown that salt tolerance of plants can be improved by treat- ing seed with water or solutions of inorganic or organic salts before sowing (Jafar et al. 2012; Kaya et al. 2006; Patade et al. 2009; Srivastava et al. 2010; Yadav et al. 2011). Seed priming has become as a promising strategy in modern stress management (Van Hulten et al. 2006). There are various priming approaches including hydropriming (soaking in water), halopriming (soaking in inorganic salt solutions), osmopriming (soaking in solutions of different organic osmotica), thermopriming (treatment of seed with low or high temperatures), solid matrix priming (treatment of seed with solid matrices), and biopriming (hydration using biolog- ical compounds) (Ashraf and Foolad 2005; Tzortzakis 2009). A variety of chemicals are used to create low-water-poten- tial solutions, including KNO3, KCl, K3PO4, KH2PO4, MgSO4, CaCl2, NaCl, etc. (Jisha et al. 2013). Pretreatment of the mungbean seeds with NaCl ameliorated the injurious effects of NaCl stress (Saha et al. 2010). It has been shown that priming of sunflower seeds with KNO3 (500 ppm) allevi- ates NaCl-induced stress during germination (Kaya et al. Introduction Mahdiyeh Gholami ( ) E-mail: mah.gholami@cc.iut.ac.ir Tel: +98-311-3913411 / Fax: +98-311-3913447