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Variability in germination behaviour of P aspalum dilatatum P oir. seeds is genotype dependent
Author(s) -
Glison N.,
Viega L.,
Cornaglia P.,
Gutiérrez L.,
Speranza P.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
grass and forage science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1365-2494
pISSN - 0142-5242
DOI - 10.1111/gfs.12119
Subject(s) - germination , dormancy , biology , conditioning , seed dormancy , ecotype , horticulture , crop , agronomy , storage protein , botany , statistics , mathematics , biochemistry , gene
Dallisgrass ( P aspalum dilatatum P oir.) is a warm‐season grass, native to South America. Its adoption as a pasture crop has been hindered by low seed germination and slow establishment. However, variability in germination behaviour for this species has never been systematically analysed. For P aspalum spp., dry‐storage and moist cold or warm pre‐conditioning treatments have been reported as effective for the relief or breaking of seed dormancy. In the present work, seed germination responses at 32°C were assayed for sixteen P . dilatatum genotypes, representing its known natural genetic variability, to two moist pre‐conditioning treatments (at 5 and 20°C) and without pre‐conditioning, and three seed storage periods (0, 3 and 6 months). Pre‐conditioning at 20°C showed high germination percentages (>80%), with ratios equal to or higher than pre‐conditioning at 5°C, suggesting that cold is not required to break dormancy. Longer storage times resulted in increases in germination responses for most of the genotypes, while other biotypes showed no effect. Biotypes V irasoro and C hirú showed a remarkably different behaviour with higher germination percentages of untreated freshly harvested seeds. Our results show that diversity for traits involved in seed germination exists among naturally occurring P . dilatatum genotypes and the characterization of these traits should be addressed during ecotype characterization and evaluation of potential domesticates of this species.