Determination of Effect of Spermine Treatment on Alleviation of the Drought Stress Caused by Polyethylene glycol in Soybean (Glycine maxL.) Seeds

The present study was formulated in order to determine the effect of spermine treatment on germination of soybean (Glycine max L.) seeds during drought-stress induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG).Soybean seeds were planted in petri dishes and irrigated with five solutions (namely control, drought, PEG, Spm, and PEG-Spm). Germination percentage was achieved by counting the number of germinated seeds per row. Germination criterion was appearance of radicle cap.Statistical analyses were performed by one-way ANOVA through Duncan Test at p?0.05 in SPSS (Version 21) in three iterations. Graphs were drawn in Excel Software (Microsoft Office, 2010). The results obtained from the present study showed that addition of spermine 0.1 mM in normal condition led to significant reduction of germination compared with control treatment. Also, spermine treatment could not alleviate adverse effects of drought stress cause by PEG.