Melatonin Enhances Maize Germination, Growth, and Salt Tolerance by Regulating Reactive Oxygen Species Accumulation and Antioxidant Systems.

ABSTRACT: Melatonin (MT) is a crucial hormone that controls and positively regulates plant growth under abiotic stress, but the biochemical and physiological processes of the combination of melatonin seed initiation and exogenous spray treatments and their effects on maize germination and seedling salt tolerance are not well understood. Consequently, in this research, we utilized the maize cultivars Zhengdan 958 (ZD958) and Demeiya 1 (DMY1), which are extensively marketed in northeastern China's high-latitude cold regions, to reveal the modulating effects of melatonin on maize salinity tolerance by determining the impacts of varying concentrations of melatonin on maize seedling growth characteristics, osmoregulation, antioxidant systems, and gene expression. The findings revealed that salt stress (1

SUBMITTER: Li WQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11768311 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature