Non-destructive identification of single hard seed via multispectral imaging analysis in six legume species

Xiaowen Hu,Zuxin Zhang,Lingjie Yang

doi:10.1186/s13007-020-00659-5

Abstract

BackgroundPhysical dormancy (hard seed) occurs in most species of Leguminosae family and has great consequences not only for ecological adaptation but also for agricultural practice of these species. A rapid, nondestructive and on-site screening method to detect hard seed within species is fundamental important for maintaining seed vigor and germplasm storage as well as understanding seed adaptation to various environment. In this study, the potential of multispectral imaging with object-wise multivariate image analysis was evaluated as a way to identify hard and soft seeds in Acacia seyal, Galega orientulis, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Medicago sativa, Melilotus officinalis, and Thermopsis lanceolata. Principal component analysis (PCA), linear discrimination analysis (LDA), and support vector machines (SVM) methods were applied to classify hard and soft seeds according to their morphological features and spectral traits.ResultsThe performance of discrimination model via multispectral imaging analysis was varied with species. For M. officinalis, M. sativa, and G. orientulis, an excellent classification could be achieved in an independent validation data set. LDA model had the best calibration and validation abilities with the accuracy up to 90% for M. sativa. SVM got excellent seed discrimination results with classification accuracy of 91.67% and 87.5% for M. officinalis and G. orientulis, respectively. However, both LDA and SVM model failed to discriminate hard and soft seeds in A. seyal, G. glabra, and T. lanceolate.ConclusionsMultispectral imaging together with multivariate analysis could be a promising technique to identify single hard seed in some legume species with high efficiency. More legume species with physical dormancy need to be studied in future research to extend the use of multispectral imaging techniques.

Highlights

Physical dormancy occurs in most species of Leguminosae family and has great consequences for ecological adaptation and for agricultural practice of these species
Morphologic feathers of hard and soft seeds The difference in morphological traits between hard and soft seeds of a species was varied with species (Table 1)
For M. sativa and M. officinalis, a significant difference was observed between hard and soft seeds of each species in terms of the mean value of seed area, length, Width/Length Ratio, compactness circle, BetaShape a, BetaShape b, CIELab L*, CIELab a*, CIELab b*, and saturation, while no significant difference existed in terms of the mean value of compactness ellipse and vertical orientation

Summary

Introduction

Physical dormancy (hard seed) occurs in most species of Leguminosae family and has great consequences for ecological adaptation and for agricultural practice of these species. Physical dormancy (PY, referred as hard seed) occurs in at least 18 angiosperm plant families including Fabaceae [1, 2], and is caused by a water-impermeable seed or fruit coat [1, 3, 4]. This kind of dormancy prevents seeds from. Since hard seed is impermeable to water, distinguishing whether a seed imbibed or not when soaking in the water is the most common method to determine seed physical dormancy [1, 11] This process destroys the seed coat structure of soft seeds and not suitable for online measurements and sorting. A rapid, nondestructive and on-site screening method to detect hard seed is necessary for research purpose and for seed grading and sorting in seed industry

Methods

Results

Conclusion