ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Mitigation of the Salinity Influences on Maize (Zea mays L.) Productivity by Exogenous Applications of Glycine Betaine

A field experiment was carried out to estimate the advantageous efficiency of the foliar application of glycine betaine (GB) (10mM) on salt-stressed maize (Zea mays L.) plants. Salinity treatments (50 and 100 mM) were conducted using sodium chloride (NaCl).
The results showed that the increase in salinity levels led to a decrease in the maize shoot growth criteria (the leaves number per plant, leaf area index, shoot dry weight, plant height and ear height) and yield components (the ear diameter, ear length, kernels number per ear, seed weight per ear and the 100 seed weight). This effect was obvious with the 100 mM NaCl treatment for all measured parameters. On the other hand, the exogenous application of glycine betaine seemed to mitigate the negative effects of salt stress on the growth criteria and productivity of maize plants. So, it can be concluded that maize plants are not salt-tolerant, and the foliar application of GB might be useful as a possible growth regulator to ameliorate the growth and productivity of maize plants under salinity conditions.