A standardized bioassay for evaluation of potential germination stimulants for seeds of parasitic weeds

Abstract

A standard bioassay for the evaluation of the biological activity of potential germination stimulants for seeds of parasitic weeds has been designed by carefully reconsidering all steps of a literature procedure. Addition of a surfactant to the solution for sterilization of the seeds gave a considerable reduction of contamination during the conditioning and stimulation process. Furthermore, it was shown that the water/seed ratio during conditioning affects the germination results. For the seed conditioning and stimulation process, the “sandwich” technique was introduced, whereby the seeds were placed between two layers of glass fiber filter paper discs. The standardized bioassay has been used for the evaluation of the stimulatory activity of numerous (new) synthetic analogues of strigol (the natural germination stimulant). It is essential to include a reference compound—GR24, an analogue of strigol, is recommended—in every test series, because it was observed that, although a standard bioassay was used, germination percentages obtained with GR24 solutions vary from test to test. For seeds of Striga hermonthica, seasonal effects were found in the germination percentages obtained with GR24 as stimulant. Test results with strigol analogues having modifications in ring D reveal that structural variations in this part of the molecule have dramatic effects on the biological activity of strigol analogues.