Open AccessThirty-year monitoring and statistical analysis of 50 species' germinability in genebank medium-term storage suggest specific characteristics in seed longevity
Author(s) -
Fukuhiro Yamasaki,
Eiji Domon,
Norihiko Tomooka,
Akiko BabaKasai,
Hiroshi Nemoto,
Kaworu Ebana
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
seed science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.246
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1819-5717
pISSN - 0251-0952
DOI - 10.15258/sst.2020.48.2.14
Subject(s) - longevity , biology , germination , horticulture , botany , genetics
A total of 401,293 germination test results accumulated over 30 years for 110,819 seed lots of 50 species and 4 sub-species stored at –1°C and 30% relative humidity was analysed to assess seed longevity. The Kaplan- Meier estimator was used to perform comprehensive analysis, including censored observations due to seed lot regeneration or substitution. The Weibull distribution was used to model the observed and censored death times for each survival curve and its parameters were used as the common indicator. Interspecific differences in seed longevity, the time until the germination percentage falls below 85% of its initial value, were observed. The shortest and longest seed longevity periods were 8.4 and 127.1 years for Panicum maximum and Cucumis sativus , respectively. Moreover, intra-specific differences in seed longevity were observed at different levels of domestication and geographical distribution of origin. For example, the average seed longevity of six-row Hordeum vulgare landraces that originated from southern Europe showed 2.5 times that of the average of this species. Here, reference materials for setting appropriate intervals of germination testing are presented.