Abstract
Seed priming is a successful practice to improve crop establishment under adverse environment. However, reduced longevity of primed rice (Oryza sativa L.) seeds during storage limited the adoption of this technique. Present study investigated the effect of temperature, relative air humidity (RH) and oxygen on the longevity of primed rice seeds in a range of 60 days storage. In addition, the biochemical and morphological mechanisms associated with deterioration of primed seeds during storage were explored. Three types of priming treated rice seeds and one non-primed control were stored under (1) low temperature-vacuum (LT-V), (2) room temperature-vacuum (RT-V), (3) room temperature-aerobic-low RH (RT-A-LH) and (4) room temperature-aerobic- high RH (RT-A-HH) for 0, 15, 30, 45, and 60 days. The results showed that storage of seeds under different conditions for 15–60 days did not influence the longevity of non-primed rice seeds. Meanwhile, the viability of primed rice seeds did not reduce when stored under LT-V, RT-V, and RT-A-LH, but was significantly reduced under RT-A-HH. Under vacuum condition, the increases of storage temperature (30°C) did not reduce the longevity of primed seeds. Likewise, the oxygen did not influence the longevity of primed rice seeds stored under low RH. Nevertheless, increase of RH significantly reduced the viability of primed seeds stored for 15–60 days. Reduced starch metabolism, the consumption of starch reserves in rice endosperms, the accumulation of malondialdehyde and the decreases of antioxidant enzyme activities might be associated with the deterioration of primed rice seeds during storage. In conclusion, storage of primed seeds under high RH condition beyond 15 days is deteriorative for germination and growth of rice. The primed rice seeds are recommended to store at vacuum or low RH or low temperature condition to ensure good crop establishment.
Highlights
Seed priming refers to the seed treatment that hydrating the seeds before sowing to activate several metabolic events, but radicle protrusion does not occur (Heydecker and Coolbear, 1977)
The germination attributes of the primed seeds stored under room temperature-vacuum (RT-V) and RT-A-LH were not decreased during 0–60 days of storage
The viability of primed and unprimed rice seeds were not reduced under RT-V, probably because vacuum treatment enables seeds to keep low moisture content as oxygen and water was isolated from the storage condition
Summary
Seed priming refers to the seed treatment that hydrating the seeds before sowing to activate several metabolic events, but radicle protrusion does not occur (Heydecker and Coolbear, 1977). Several reports have been proved that seed priming was effective in promoting seed germination, enhancing seedling growth of rice (Oryza sativa L.) under chilling (Hussain et al, 2016a; Wang et al, 2016), How to Store Primed Rice Seeds?. It has been suggested that the seed longevity is influenced by several factors such as temperature, oxygen, relative air humidity and seed moisture content (Rajjou and Debeaujon, 2008). Our previous research found that the germination percentage and growth attributes of primed rice seedlings were significantly reduced when stored at 25?, while no significant decrease was found when primed seeds were store at −4◦C (Hussain et al, 2015). The research of Hussain et al (2015) ignored the influence of oxygen concentration and the relative air humidity (RH) during storage, which are known to greatly impact the seed longevity
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