Rice seed priming with Se : A novel approach to mitigate As induced adverse consequences on growth, yield and As load in brown rice.

The current investigation was laid down to investigate the consequences of cultivating selenium (Se) primed seedlings of two contrasting rice varieties in arsenic (As) free and As spiked pot soil. At maturity, Se primed seedlings (both tested varieties) cultivated alike the controls (in As free condition) were found to posses significantly (p < 0.001) greater amount of chlorophyll, biomass, tiller number, panicle weight and test weight beside these, also having longer plant height than the control. Adverse effects of As stress can be seen in the unprimed plants of both the tested varieties in accordance to dose in the above studied parameters. Compare to the unprimed varieties cultivated in As spiked soil, Se primed plants exhibited an upward trend in restoring adverse effects of As like longer height, greater biomass content, tiller number, test weight etc, in a low to highly significant manner. Brown rice and cooked rice of Se primed plants content significantly (p < 0.001) less As load than those of unprimed plants. Se primed plants were found to restrict As translocation into the aerial parts by confining As into its root in greater amount than those of unprimed plants in variety irrespective fashion.