Osmotic and salinity effects on germination

Osmotic and salinity effects on germination

Seeds in saline environments face a dilemma between allocating reserves to either osmotic balance or growth and development.  Zhang et al. show that barley seeds incubated in saline solutions germinate more rapidly than seeds in iso-osmotic PEG solutions. This suggests that barley seeds use salt as a metabolically cheap cellular osmotica, facilitating rapid germination under moderately saline conditions.