Abstract
Global warming has encouraged farmers to start planting earlier. However, these advanced plantings
also increase the risk by low-temperature stress. Therefore, accelerated germination under
low-temperature conditions and enhanced chilling stress tolerance of seedlings are important factors to
increase crop production. Here we show that a single seed treatment using a mixture of hydrogen
peroxide (H2O2) and a trace amount of transitional metal catalyst can accelerate germination under cool
temperature conditions. When seeds were germinated at 23ºC or 11ºC in the dark, the treated seeds
germinated earlier than the control seeds. Furthermore, the treatment was effective long after
germination: seedlings from the treated seeds showed faster root growth at both 23ºC and 11ºC. This
treatment could provide a sustainable method to improve growth performance under both optimum and
chilling conditions.
