ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Enhancing Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)
Resilience to Water Stress through Seed
Priming Agents: Agro-Morphological
and Physio-Biochemical Insights
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1
School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, India
2
Division of Seed Science and Technology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India
3
Faculty of Biology, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia
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Academy of Biology and Biotechnology, Southern Federal University, Rostov on Don, Russia
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Department of Biological Sciences, Al Hussein bin Talal University, P.O. Box 20, Maan, Jordan
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State University of New York, Stonybrook, New York, USA
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Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Submission date: 2024-02-26
Final revision date: 2024-09-01
Acceptance date: 2025-05-20
Online publication date: 2025-06-05
Corresponding author
Abhishek Singh
Faculty of Biology, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia
Abdel Rahman Mohammad Tawaha
Abdel Rahman M. Tawaha Department of Biological Sciences, Al Hussein Bin Talal University, P.O. Box 20, Ma’an, Jordan e-mail: abdel-al-tawaha@ahu.edu.jo, Jordan
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ABSTRACT
Water scarcity exacerbates malnutrition, especially in regions where chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L.)
are widely cultivated, due to micronutrient deficiencies. Mitigating water-limiting stress through
cost-effective seed priming techniques using micronutrients and phytohormones is a novel attempt
at ameliorating water stress through morpho-physiological and biochemical manifestations. This
study evaluates the effectiveness of zinc (0.5%), boron (0.05%), and salicylic acid (0.5%) as priming
agents on chickpea genotypes under water-limiting conditions, optimizing concentrations in lab
conditions before field trials. Results indicated a progressive rise in various morpho-physiological and
biochemical parameters in Bprimed treatments, followed by Zn and SA treatments, in both normal
and water-limited environments. The findings suggest that precise nutrient and hormonal priming can
enhance modern cropping systems by mitigating oxidative stress induced by water scarcity, presenting
a promising avenue for sustainable agriculture.