Respiratory activity in wheat seeds as related to physiological quality

Abstract

Seeds are a very important input for crops, and the use of low quality seeds and/or inadequate management affects the germination and hampers seedling emergence, which reduces the plant stand. There is a critical need for the development of rapid methods, which are both reliable and easy to perform, for evaluating the physiological potential of seeds. This would streamline the decision-making process regarding the management of lots and allow for the identification of seed lots of inadequate quality in the seed processing unit, which could then be discarded, and would consequently result in reduced costs associated with unnecessary processing. However, it is important that these methods are low cost and quick to perform. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation of respiratory activity of wheat seed, through Pettenkofer test, with tests that evaluate seeds physiological quality. We selected a seed lot of high physiological quality, then subjected the seeds to adverse temperature and relative humidity conditions to obtain different vigor levels. The adverse conditions used were 42ºC and 100% relative humidity, for periods of 6, 36, 66 and 96 hours. This process obtained seeds of five vigor levels which were subjected to the following tests: germination, field emergence, electrical conductivity, shoot and root length, total dry mass and respiratory activity. The results showed a negative correlation between respiratory activity and germination, emergence, shoot and root length and dry weight, whereas germination and emergence were strongly correlated with respiratory activity, r = -0.86 and r = -0.81, respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between conductivity and respiratory activity. Therefore, the respiratory activity test using the Pettenkofer method was correlated with other vigor tests, and allowed the classification of wheat seeds into lots of different levels of quality.

Respiratory Activity as a Fast Method for Vigor Differentiation of Habanero Pepper Seeds

“…By the respiratory activity measured by Pettenkofer physicochemical method (Table 4), in which is evaluated the amount of CO 2 released by the respiration of the seeds per gram of seed per hour, it was possible to statistically separate all the seed lots in six levels of vigor. Similar behavior was found by Torres et al (2016) and Dode et al (2016) that, working with E. sativa and T. sativum, respectively, verified the efficiency of the Pettenkofer method in statistically separating lots at quality levels.…”

“…Similar studies were conducted with Zea mays L. , Eruca sativa L. (Torres et al, 2016), Triticum sativum L. (Dode et al, 2016), Citrullus lanatus [Thunb.] Matsum and Nakai (Oliveira et al, 2015) among others, proving the efficiency of the methods in differentiating lots with different vigor levels.…”

“…In wheat seeds, the results allowed to relate the quality standard tests of the seed lots with the respiratory activity measured in the Pettenkofer apparatus (Dode et al, 2016). However, there were no significant correlations between respiration and vigor tests in watermelon seeds (Oliveira et al, 2015).…”

Carbon dioxide quantified by the infrared in respiratory activity evaluation in corn seeds

“…In the present research, the respiratory activity of seeds from different seed lots was higher the lower the physiological quality, in accordance with Dode et al (2013) with seeds of Glicine max L., Martins et al (2014) with seeds of Z. mays and Dode et al (2016) with seeds of Triticum aestivum L., which observed an inverse relationship between CO 2 concentration released by seeds and their physiological quality.…”

Respiratory activity and physiological performance of maize seeds classified according to their shapes and sizes

“…However, for genotype "B", considering absolute values, large flat seeds originated seedlings with higher total dry mass, however, they were statistically similar to those from large round seeds, while the total dry mass of seedlings originated from small flat seeds and small round were inferior, not differing between themselves, indicating less vigor. Dode et al (2016), evaluating the efficiency of Pettenkofer´s method to determine respiratory activity of wheat seed lots with different vigor levels, observed that seedlings with the highest total mass were those originated from seeds with higher vigor. In this sense, it should be emphasized that larger seeds tend to originate larger seedlings compared to those from smaller seeds (Stumm et al, 2016).…”