Seed coating reduces respiration losses and affects sugar metabolism during germination and early seedling growth in cereals.

Abstract

Seed germination and the successful establishment of young seedlings is an important aspect of plant life. Seed coats are used to improve stand establishment and early seedling vigour. Seedlings growing from hydro-absorber coated barley, rye and wheat with coat-shares greater than 75% of the average seed have been shown to promote better seedling growth compared with those seedlings growing from uncoated seeds. We investigated how and why these seedlings performed better by analysing the proportion of grain reserves mobilised for growth and respiration as well as how both sucrose and glucose available in the embryo translated into seedling growth in the presence or absence of seed coats containing hydro-absorber gel. We found that mobilisation efficiency was higher, resulting in higher biomass in these cereals when they were coated. The relationship between sucrose and glucose available to the seedling as well as its correlation with early seedling growth indicate a switch in the enzymatic cleavage of embryonic sucrose from invertase to sucrose synthase. This in turn indicates that in coated seeds, embryonic tissue must be hypoxic leading to a more efficient use of glucose and thus reduced respiration losses during germination.