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Abstract
Cereus jamacaru, a Cactaceae found throughout northeast Brazil, is widely used as cattle food and as an ornamental and medicinal plant. However, there has been little information about the physiological and biochemical aspects involved in its germination. The aim of this study was to investigate its reserve mobilization during germination and early seedling growth. For this, C. jamacaru seeds were germinated in a growth chamber and collected at 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 12 days after imbibition for morphological and biochemical analyses. Dry seeds had wrinkled seed coats and large, curved embryos. Lipids were the most abundant reserve, comprising approximately 55% and 65% of the dry mass for cotyledons and the hypocotylradicle axis, respectively. Soluble sugars and starch were the minor reserves, corresponding to approximately 2.2% of the cotyledons' dry mass, although their levels showed significant changes during germination. Soluble proteins corresponded to 40% of the cotyledons' dry mass, which was reduced by 81% at the final period of germination compared to dry seeds. C. jamacaru seed can be classified as an oil seed due to its high lipid content. Moreover, lipids were the main reserve mobilized during germination because their levels were strongly reduced after seed germination, while proteins were the second most utilized reserve in this process.
Highlights
Seed germination is composed of two distinct meta bolic processes: reserve mobilization by hydrolytic enzymes and the use of the hydrolysis products for the formation of new cell structures (Fu et al 2005, Soltani et al 2006)
The high lipid content (55% in the cotyledon of dry seeds) suggests that this species is an oil seed, which is supported by the presence of the high levels of these reserves until 6 days after imbibition (DAI) and their strong reduction at 8 DAI
The lipid content did not differ statistically at 2 and 6 DAI when compared to dry seed
Summary
Seed germination is composed of two distinct meta bolic processes: reserve mobilization by hydrolytic enzymes and the use of the hydrolysis products for the formation of new cell structures (Fu et al 2005, Soltani et al 2006). Cactus seeds present considerable variations in form, size, structure, embryo characteristics, color of the testa and number among species and sometimes within the same species (Rojas-Aréchiga and Vásquez-Yanes 2000). These authors reported features of cactus seed germination such as predation, dissemination, dormancy, soil seed bank, longevity, propagation and conservation (Rojas-Aréchiga and Vásquez-Yanes 2000). The third highest level of species diversity in the Cactaceae family is found in Brazil (Taylor and Zappi 2004), few studies have been conducted with cacti inhabiting the Caatinga vegetation, a semiarid ecosystem that characterizes northeastern Brazil (Meiado et al 2008)
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