Hindawi Publishing Corporation he Scientiic World Journal Volume 2013, Article ID 408026, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/408026 Research Article Germination Response of MR 219 Rice Variety to Different Exposure Times and Periods of 2450 MHz Microwave Frequency Daryush Talei, 1,2 Alireza Valdiani, 3 Mahmood Maziah, 3 and Mohammad Mohsenkhah 4 1 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Medicinal Plant Research Centre, Shahed University, Tehran 3319118651, Iran 3 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 4 Department of Electrical, Electronic and System Engineering, Faulty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to Daryush Talei; d.talei1348@gmail.com and Mahmood Maziah; maziahm@biotech.upm.edu.my Received 29 June 2013; Accepted 19 September 2013 Academic Editors: A. M. De Ron and R. M. Mian Copyright © 2013 Daryush Talei et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Germination is a key process in plants’ phenological cycles. Accelerating this process could lead to improvment of the seedling growth as well as the cultivation eiciency. To achieve this, the efect of microwave frequency on the germination of rice seeds was examined. he physiological feedbacks of the MR 219 rice variety in terms of seed germination rate (GR), germination percentage (GP), and mean germination time (MGT) were analyzed by exposing its seeds to 2450 MHz of microwave frequency for one, four, seven, and ten hours. It was revealed that exposing the seeds to the microwave frequency for 10 hours resulted in the highest GP. his treatment led to 100% of germination ater three days with a mean germination time of 2.1 days. Although the other exposure times of microwave frequency caused the moderate efects on germination with a GP a3 ranged from 93% to 98%, they failed to reduce the MGT a3 . he results showed that ten-hour exposure times of microwave frequency for six days signiicantly facilitated and improved the germination indices (primary shoot and root length). herefore, the technique is expected to beneit the improvement of rice seed germination considering its simplicity and eicacy in increasing the germination percentage and rate as well as the primary shoot and root length without causing any environmental toxicity. 1. Introduction Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a staple food source of more than two billion people across the world. Of the total calories consumed globally, 23% are supplied by rice [1]. MR 219 is a Malaysian indica rice variety resulted from a cross between MR 137 and MR 151, which was released by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), in 2001 [2]. However, the variety is considered a high- yielding rice with a suitable quality in shape and taste, but it is sensitive to environmental changes [3]. he propagation of rice generally occurs through seed and seedling, while germination is a crucial stage in the life cycle of the plant. his process depends on the seed structure and the environmental factors that afect the growth potential of the embryo [4, 5]. he microwave applications have especially been developed in agriculture sector over the past 50 years [6]. Tran [7] was one of the pioneer scientists in this ield who realized that the germination of Acacia longifolia and A. Sophorae seeds could be improved by microwave energy at 2450 MHz. Yet, the case has continuously attracted a great deal of consideration since then. he frequency range of microwaves is between 300 MHz and 300 GHz [8, 9]. Due to their high frequency and short wavelength, they are desirable for communication and radar applications as well. he current advances in technology make works get done easier and cheaper. Simultaneously, requests for applying the microwave energy to every corner of life have mounted. Microwaves have been an interesting research subject even in the current century. Aladjadjiyan [10]