Biological effect of the seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana irradiated by MeV protons

Abstract

Dry and water-imbibed seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana were irradiated by H+ ions with energy in the range of million electron volt. The inhibition of germination and survival were investigated to study the influence of ion fluence on the state of the seeds. A saddle shape of the fluence–response curve was found. Under the same irradiation conditions, the germination rate and survival rate of imbibed seeds were higher than those of dry seeds. The survival rate is much lower than the germination rate at high fluence both for dry and imbibed seeds. The possible mechanisms of the earlier mentioned experimental results are discussed in this paper.