EN
Twenty-five lentil ( Lens culinaris Medik.) genotypes were studied to evaluate the effects of the SiO2 nano-particles on plants under salt stress. The experiment was a 3×25 factorial arrangement with three levels of treatment solutions as (T1) distilled water as control, (T2) 100 mM NaCl concentration and (T3) 1 mM nano-silicon dioxide concentration plus 100 mM NaCl concentration, and 25 levels of lentil genotypes. Results showed a significant reduction in germination percent and seedling growth due to the salinity stress while significantly increased with silicon nano-particles application. The germination percentage, shoot length, root length, seedling fresh weight and seedling dry weight traits showed significant differences among lentil genotypes in treatment solutions. Results indicated that adding SiO2 nano-particles could improve germination and seedling early growth under salinity stress and the related traits were increased in all of lentil genotypes. Overall, application of SiO2 nano-particles was beneficial in improving salinity tolerance in the lentil seedling and its application may stimulate the differences defense mechanisms of plants against salt toxicity.