Priming, Cd Tolerance, and Phytoremediation

Cadmium is a non-essential toxic soil pollutant with toxic effects on plants, especially crop plants, and can affect human health through accumulation in crop plants, thus entering the food chain. Under Cd stress, plants experience oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, reduction in chlorophyll content, and reduced growth as well as biomass production and yield. Seed priming is a simple, cost-effective technique used for improvement of seed and seedling performance. In case of amelioration of Cd stress through seed priming, there is significant research that confirms positive effects of seed priming using salicylic acid as well as other priming agents to enhance plants tolerance towards Cd stress.