The percent germination and seedling growth of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L. cv. PBG-1) decreased with increasing concentrations of exogenous polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG). With 15% PEG in the growth medium germination was only 33% while with 10% PEG it was 58% as compared to 93% in control. Addition of gibberellic acid (GA3) and kinetin to medium containing 10% PEG increased the germination and seedling growth and the effect was maximum with 6 µM GA3 which was a better inducer of growth and germination under reduced water potential than kinetin. However, indole acetic acid (IAA) inhibited germination and growth of stressed seedlings. The activity of amylase in cotyledons under stress was significantly increased with GA3 while kinetin and IAA were less effective. Gibberellic acid also enhanced the mobilization of starch from cotyledons of stressed seedlings resulting in low starch levels in cotyledons compared with stressed seedlings.
