This study aimed to evaluate the effect of agents inducing water and saline stress on the seed germination and early growth and antioxidant activity in sunflower seedlings. Sunflower seeds, cv. M735, were germinated on moistened paper in solutions with osmotic potentials of 0.0, -0.2, -0.4 and -0.8 MPa induced by PEG 6000 and NaCl. The germination test was conducted with four samples of 100 seeds and four replicates per treatment, in a germination chamber at 25 ºC without light. We evaluated the final percentage and speed of germination index, and the initial growth and activity of antioxidant enzymes in sunflower seedlings. Water stress induced by PEG 6000 increased the percentage of seeds germinated in the potential of -0.2 MPa, on the other hand, for NaCl in the potential of -0.8 MPa, there was a significant reduction. For this same potential, there was also a reduction in the rate of seed germination speed index in both conditioning agents. For the parameters of growth, shoot length decreased linearly with increasing concentrations of PEG 6000 and NaCl. As for the dry mass of leaves and roots and root length, this effect was more significant only in the potential of -0.8 MPa. The enzymes SOD, APX and CAT activity tended to be lower in seedlings originating from seeds in PEG 6000. In the presence of NaCl, the activity of SOD in the leaves increased significantly in the three tested for potential witnesses. For APX and CAT increase was observed at potentials of -0.2 and -0.4 MPa. In the roots there was no significant difference. An analysis of the evaluated parameters indicates that sunflower cv M735, under the conditions tested, showed tolerance to drought stress and salt until the potential of -0.4 MPa.
Helianthus annuus L; germination; growth and oxidative stress
