Frontiers in Seed Priming: Invigorating Seed Physiology and Optimizing Crops Performance

The escalating global demand for food has intensified the need for advanced agricultural practices. Seed priming, a pre-sowing treatment that enhances germination, seedling vigor, stress tolerance, and overall crop yield has emerged as a promising technique in this context. While traditional methods such as hydro-priming, osmo-priming, and matric priming are effective under moderate stress, they often fall short when confronted with extreme environmental challenges. In response, innovative approaches including nano-priming, hydrogel-assisted priming, electric and magnetic field priming, plasma-activated water priming, UV-C radiation priming, cold plasma priming, LED-based photo-priming, and biopolymer priming have been developed. These advanced techniques not only improve seed performance but also modulate plant physiological processes, thereby reinforcing innate resilience mechanisms. Furthermore, the integration of bioinformatics and multi-omics tools has provided deeper insights into seed physiology, paving the way for the development of optimized priming protocols. This review critically examines the applications of these cutting-edge seed priming techniques, emphasizing their potential to enhance germination and crop performance under adverse environmental conditions.