Lead is considered as an essential potent environmental contaminant. Various ecological, environmental and evolutionary processes in the microsphere are disrupted because of lead toxicity to the microbial community. Based on this important perspective, the effects of increasing doses (control, 100, 200 and 400 mg L^-1) of Lead Nitrate (Pb(NO₃)₂) as heavy metal on seed germination and seedling growth of 11 different sesame genotypes were investigated. The research was carried out according to the Completely Randomized Experimental Design (CRD) with three replications at 25 °C (±2) in the Department of Field Crops laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University in 2016. In the experiment, 25 seeds of each genotype were placed to germinate for 14 days, and then, some basic germination and seedling growth determining parameters such as germination percentage, radicle length, plumula length, seedling length, seedling fresh weight, seedling dry weight, and vigor index were observed.
Lead treatments have a strong negative influence on the growth of sesame by reducing significantly all the above parameters. The growth of the plants grown with increasing lead levels was reduced compared to control plants. As a result, the effects of increasing levels of lead nitrate on the seeds germination percentages of sesame genotypes varied among the genotypes. The most tolerant genotype to the increasing levels of lead nitrate was Muganlı-57. The highest values of the other features examined were found to be obtained from the control applications of the genotypes.