Nourredine Yahia

Salt stress is a major environmental constraint most limiting plant productivity. Seeking salt-tolerant crops requires an examination of the behavior of the plant development including seed germination stage. The effects of NaCl stress (100 mM) combined or not with different solutions of phytohormones ABA (0.005 mM), GA3 (0.005 mM) and SA (0.5 mM) on germination of two processing tomato cultivars named Rio Grande (Rg) and Imperial (Ip) were investigated. Seeds were subjected to salt stress, combined or not with hormones, at two stages of development (48 and 96 hours). The results shows that the germination rate and germinate value of the two processing cultivars of tomato were influenced by the different treatments. On the other hand, salicylic acid as GA3 attenuate the effect of NaCl. Instead, the middle enriched with ABA inhibits seed germination. Moreover, the tested stress conditions had shown a significant variability in the germination and handling between the two germination stages. Nevertheless, the effect of GA3 and SA on the germination of two processing tomato varieties to improve the inhibitory effect of ABA and salinity was discussed.