Effect of Synthetic and Botanical Insecticides and Seed Germination, Mitotic Index of Pisum sativum and Zea mays

Abstract

The seed germination trials have relevance in selection plants for their prospective use in phyto remediation. The effect of synthetic pesticide monocrotophos and botanical insecticide azadirachtin on the seed germination of green pea and maize has been investigated in the present study. The germination of seeds was evaluated in the room temperature using petriplates with both the insecticides at the concentrations 100, 200 and 400 ppm, while distilled water is taken as control. Significant reduction and delay in seed germination was observed at the increasing concentration of monocrotophos than the control. Whereas, the treatment of azadirachtin was significantly increased the seed germination than the monocrotophos. The level of mitotic index of treated seeds was found to decrease with increase in concentration of monocrotophos. Disruption of mitotic index over the usage of insecticides was analyzed using the insilico molecular modeling and docking approaches. The docking results showed that the formation of tight complex between monocrotophos and MAPK of Pisum sativum (Garden peas) and Zea mays (Maize) might be the reason for disturbance in the mitotic index.