Effect of polymer seed coatings on microbiological status, and growth characteristics of muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.)
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Date
2021
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The present study aimed to study the effect of the seed priming and coating (CMC) with metal
oxide nanoparticles (NPs) and PGPR (Burkholderia seminalis). Metal oxide NPs (FeO and CuO) were
synthesized by wet chemistry approach and exhibited semi-spherical (5-45 nm) and elongated tubular
nanorods (30-60 nm long and 5-10 nm wide) morphologies respectively. The in vitro filter paper
studies using different concentrations (0, 5, 10, 20, 40 mgL-1) of FeO NPs revealed that FeO NPs (5 mg
L-1) significantly increased the vegetative growth parameters of the muskmelon seedlings. Further, a
germination peg-tray assay was conducted to evaluate the effect of seed priming/ coating treatment by
use of FeO (5 mg L-1) and CuO (0, 5, 10, 20, 40 mg L-1) NPs alongwith the PGPR culture. A similar
trend was recorded for different vegetative parameters in germination peg tray assay. The one-monthold
muskmelon seedlings were transferred to the field to evaluate the effect under field conditions.
Various concentrations of bulk/ NPs alone had overall significant impact on the vegetative and fruit
quality traits. Soil enzyme activity and photosynthetic pigments exhibited significant results for all
treatments. Dual/ triple interactions of seed coating/ priming treatments and culture inoculation
significantly altered the soil chemical, nutrient and micro-nutrient status. Various concentrations of
bulk/ NPs alone and their dual interactions with treatment/ culture had significant impact on the shoot
nutrient content. Seed treatments, culture inoculation, as well as dual/ triple interactions among these
factors had significant impact on the root nutrient and Fe content. Culture inoculation had no
significant impact on the Cu content. Seed coating/ priming, culture inoculation, various concentrations
of bulk salts/ NPs and their dual or triple interactions significantly altered the soil microbial count.
CMC polymer significantly altered the fungal, bacterial and P-solubilizing bacterial count. Seed
priming had significant impact on the free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria and numerically altered the
count of actinobacteria. Inoculation of culture had significant effect on the bacterial, actinobacteria and
free-living nitrogen fixing bacteria and it numerically altered the fungal count. Further, from various
concentrations of bulk/ NPs, CuO NPs at 40 mg L-1 had significant highest impact on the fungus and Psolubilizing
bacteria. The CuO NPs at 20 and 5 mg L-1 had significantly highest impact on free living N
bacteria and bacteria respectively.
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Citation
Jashapreet Kaur (2021). Effect of polymer seed coatings on microbiological status, and growth characteristics of muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) (Unpublished M.Sc. thesis). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.