Standardization of optimum melatonin concentration for drought tolerance at germination and early development stage in rice (CO-54)

Drought stress poses a serious threat to production and nutritional security. In recent years, foliar application of plant growth regulators (PGRs) nutrients are increasingly employed overcome physiological constraints resulting in enhanced crop production. Melatonin is new biomolecule recently found ameliorate the effect biotic abiotic stresses plants. Hence, present experiment was conducted assess optimum concentration melatonin mitigate adverse drought on germination components rice variety CO-54. this experiment, PEG-mediated (-0.5 MPa) imposed with different concentrations (at doses 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 µM) seed treatments. Together, these results indicated that 200 µM melatonin-treated seeds showed greater percentage (60%), root length (12.23cm), shoot (8.23cm), fresh dry weight (0.126g 0.095g), high vigor index (1910.22), promptness (64.83), (100) respectively. The result provides shred strong evidence suggesting treatment could be considered an effective technique for mitigating detrimental effects by promoting thereby increasing seedlings rice. study demonstrates can shield from stress.