Relationships of Brassica Seed Physical Characteristics with Germination Performance and Plant Blindness

Abstract

Brassica oleracea is an important crop species that at early growth stages may exhibit failure of the apical growing point, an abnormality called “blindness”. The occurrence of blindness is promoted by exposure to low temperatures during imbibition and germination, but the causes of sensitivity to such conditions are unknown. We combined three analytical seed technology instruments to explore seed physical properties that are highly correlated with quality parameters and might be used directly for grading or sorting seed lots into subpopulations varying in potential susceptibility to blindness. For image analysis, we used the VideometerLab instrument, which can scan 19 wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared and utilize that information in any combination to potentially identify unique criteria related to seed quality. The iXeed CF Analyzer was utilized to obtain chlorophyll fluorescence values for individual seeds. Chlorophyll contents of many seeds can be used as an indicator of seed maturity, a major contributor to seed quality. Finally, oxygen consumption measurements of individual seeds as obtained with the Q2 instrument are highly correlated with their performance under a wide variety of conditions. Six Brassica seed lots differed in their susceptibility to induction of blindness or loss of viability due to 48 h hydrated incubation at 1.5 ∘C. Analysis of physical and respiratory parameters identified some measurements that were highly correlated with the occurrence of blindness. Higher chlorophyll content, as detected by the CF-Mobile and certain wavelengths in the Videometer, was associated with greater occurrence of blindness or death following the induction treatment, suggesting that more immature seeds may be susceptible to blindness. Further research is required, but methods to detect and sort such seeds based on physical characteristics appear to be feasible.

Plant phenotyping relevance

種子の画像・蛍光・呼吸測定を組み合わせ、物理特性から発芽品質やblindness感受性を評価・選別する方法が研究の中心であり、単なる生物学的結果測定ではない。

Code and data availability

The paper's individual-seed phenotyping measurements (chlorophyll fluorescence, multispectral imaging, Q2 respiration, plant blindness scores) are consolidated in Supplemental Table S1 (Seed parameters database) and related supplements, publicly hosted on the MDPI article site. No author analysis code was deposited; CR