Mitigation of Salinity Stress Effects on Wheat Growth Using dry Yeast

Salinity stress is a major constraint to wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production, adversely affecting crop growth and development. Reducing the negative impacts of salinity is essential to improving crop stability and yield in a sustainable and economically viable. To investigate the influence of dry baker's yeast on the germination % and early seedling growth of soft wheat (cv. Bohouth-210) under salinity stress levels, a lab experiment was conducted at the Seed technology laboratory, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Tripoli, Libya, during the cropping season of 2023/2024. A factorial experiment with two factors designed in a completely randomized design (CRD) was used with three replicates for each treatment. The first factor was the dry yeast concentrations were at the rates (0, 4, 6, 8, and 10 g/L) and the second factor was the salinity levels (0, 5000, 10000, 15000 and 20000 ppm) of sodium chloride solution (NaCl). The results showed that increasing salinity levels reduced germination percentage (%), seedling length, fresh weight, and seedling vigor compared to the control treatment (zero). Whereas Yeast decreased the negative effect of sodium chloride levels, increasing the ability of wheat grains to tolerate salt stress at the seedling stage up to a concentration of 10 g/L. The interaction between salt and yeast concentrations had a significant effect on most of the studied traits. Moreover, soaking wheat grain in a dry yeast concentration of 10 g/l achieved the highest values for all the studied characteristics under high salinity levels.