The effect of salt stress on the germination of maize (Zea mays L.) seeds and photosynthetic pigments | Vpliv slanostnega stresa na kalivost in fotosintezne pigmente koruze (Zea mays L.)

English. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of salinity stress on seed germination and chlorophyll content in maize. In the study, two maize hybrids were included (Bc 678 and Bc 408) originating from the Bc Institute at Rugvica near Zagreb (Croatia) and two maize populations (LMP-1 and LMP-2) originating from Kosovo. The experiment was conducted in four replicates of 100 seeds, which were germinated on top of double-layered papers, each with 10 ml of salt solution of NaCl and CaCl2 in Petri dishes. Germinated seeds were counted every 24 h for 15 days. The photosynthetic pigments, chlorophylls ‘a’ and ‘b’ as well as carotenoids were extracted with 80 % acetone. Chlorophyll and carotenoid contents were calculated using absorbance values at 662, 644 and 440 nm. The effects of the NaCl and CaCl2 concentrations accounted for a high proportion of the variance in all analyses. The results showed that both germination percentage and germination index decreased significantly in all cultivars at the highest salt concentrations. The significant differences between different concentrations of salinity were also found in all cultivars for the content of chlorophyll ‘a’ and ‘b’ and for the content of carotenoids.

Slovenian. Namen raziskave je bil proučiti vpliv slanosti tal na kalivost zrnja ter vsebnost kolorofila in karotinoidov pri koruzi. V proučevanje sta bila vključena dva hibrida ‘Bc 678’ and ‘Bc 408’, vzgojena na Zavodu za koruzo Inštituta za žlahtnjenje rastlin v Zagrebu ter dve domači populaciji (LMP-1 and LMP-2) s Kosova. Poskus je bil izveden v 4 ponovitvah in sicer za kalivost v petrijevkah po 100 zrn, za vsebnost klorofila in karotinoidov pa v lončkih po 2 rastlini z 1 kg substrata. Vsak genotip je bil, poleg kontrole, tretiran s 4 različnimi koncentracijami (50, 100, 200 in 400 mMol NaCl in CaCl2 ). Kalivost smo ugotavljali prvih 15 dni vsakih 24 ur. Klorofil ‘a’ in ‘b’ in karotinoide smo ekstrahirali z 80 % acetonom. Vsebnost klorofila in karotinoidov smo računali s pomočjo absorpcijske vrednosti pri 662, 644 and 440 nm. Pri največji slanosti (400 mMol NaCl in CaCl2) je pri vseh kultivarjih ugotovljen statistično značilno manjši odstotek in indeks kalivosti. Prav tako so pri vseh kultivarjih ugotovljene statistično značilne razlike med različnimi koncentracijami slanosti tudi za vsebnost klorofila ‘a’ in ‘b’ ter vsebnost karotinoidov.