A laboratory experiment was carried out at Central Laboratories in Central Administration for Seed Testing and Certification, Ministry of Agriculture, Egypt, during January 2019 to investigate the effect of soaking with chitosan and proline levels under salinity stress on wheat germination and physiological characters. The experiment was conducted in factorial experiment in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications. The experiment included three factors. The first factor included four levels of soaking with chitosan (0.00, 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75%). The second factor integrated with five levels of soaking with proline (0, 1, 5, 9 and 13mM). The third factor incorporated with four levels of salinity i.e. without salinity (0), 4, 8 and 12dSm-1 of NaCl. The results indicated that the highest germination and physiological characters were resulted from soaking in chitosan at 0.75%, followed by soaking in chitosan at 0.50%. The highest values of germination and physiological characters were produced from soaking wheat seeds in proline at 13mM, followed soaking in proline at 9mM. Increasing salinity levels from 0 to 4, 8 and 12dSm-1 of NaCl significantly reduced germination characters and physiological indices of wheat. It could be concluded that for maximizing germination and physiological parameters of bread wheat Shandaweel 1 cultivar under salinity stress, it could be recommended to soaking with the mixture of chitosan at the rate of 0.75 or 0.50% and proline at the rates of 13 or 9mM for 6 h.
