## 3 Results
### Effect of Magnetoriming on Phytohormones (ABA, GA and IAA) under Salt Stress
The magnetoprimed seeds showed 40% and 24% increase in \(O_{2}\)\({}^{\bullet-}\) content in non-saline and in saline conditions, respectively, over the unprimed seeds (Figure 4A). An increase of 30% and 10% was evident with NO donor treatment, in primed seeds over unprimed ones, under non-saline and saline conditions, respectively (Figure 4A). Imbibition with inhibitors such as DPI led to 28, ST-18 and L-NAME-17% reduction in relative change in primed over unprimed ones under non-saline conditions (Figure 4A). A similar trend was also seen in presence of salt stress as DPI caused a reduction by 37%, ST 27% and L-NAME 13% (Figure 4A). The relative change in NO content in 24 h imbibed seed was increased by magnetopriming (53% in non-saline and 40% in saline) over the unprimed seeds (Figure 4B). An increase of 28% and 50% was evident with NO donor treatment in primed seeds over unprimed under non-saline and saline conditions (Figure 4B). The lower levels were observed with inhibitors as ST recorded 32%, L-NAME 20% and DPI 29% in magnetoprimed over unprimed ones under non-saline conditions (Figure 4B). A similar trend was observed in the presence of salt stress also; ST caused a reduction by 39%, L-NAME by 13% and DPI by 12% (Figure 4B). Figure 4: Relative change (%) in superoxide radical (**A**) and nitric oxide(**B**) content of magnetoprimed over unprimed seeds kept for 24 h in different modulators of NO and ROS production under non-saline and saline conditions. The data are represented as mean values of relative change \(\pm\) SE (n = 3). ###\(p\) < 0.001, ###\(p\) < 0.01, #\(p\) < 0.05 shows significant difference amongst the relative change in the seeds grown in control with the seeds grown in different modulators of NO/ROS production under non-saline conditions; ***\(p\) < 0.001, **\(p\) < 0.01 shows significant difference amongst the relative change in the seeds grown in control with the seeds grown in different modulators of NO/ROS production under saline conditions. The relative change in the activity of NOS-like enzyme was increased by 75% and 68% in magnetoprimmed compared to unprimed seeds in the absence and presence of salt stress, respectively (Figure 5A). SNP also caused an increase in NOS-like activity in the magnetoprimed seeds under non-saline (28%) and saline (16.3%) conditions, but the extent of promotion was less than their respective controls (Figure 5A). Magnetopriming-induced NOS-like activity was reduced by ST, L-NAME and DPI in both non-saline and saline conditions; the maximum reduction was recorded under L-NAME treatment in non-saline (22%) and saline (27%) conditions (Figure 5A). Figure 5: Relative change (%) in NOS-like (**A**) and NR (**B**) activities of magnetoprimed over unprimed seeds kept for 24 h in different modulators of NO and ROS production under non-saline and saline conditions. The data are represented as mean values of relative change \(\pm\) SE (n = 3). ## \(p\) < 0.001, ## \(p\) < 0.01 shows significant difference amongst the relative change in the seeds grown in control with the seeds grown in different modulators of NO/ROS production under non-saline conditions; *** \(p\) < 0.001, * \(p\) < 0.05 shows significant difference amongst the relative change in the seeds grown in control with the seeds grown in different modulators of NO/ROS production under saline conditions. Magnetopriming caused marked enhancement in the NR of imbibed soybean seeds under non-saline (100%) and saline (92%) conditions (Figure 5B). The NO donor SNP caused 31% and 44% increase in NR activity in seedlings from primed seeds as compared to their unprimed ones under non-saline and saline conditions, respectively (Figure 5B). The relative increase in NR was higher than NOS-like activity of magnetoprimed seeds treated with SNP under saline conditions (Figure 5A,B). All the inhibitors of NO/ROS production reduced the NR activity in both saline and non-saline conditions, but maximally in ST treatment (26% in non-saline and 20% in saline conditions) (Figure 5B).