BackgroundThe low seed vigor and poor field emergence are main factors that restricting the extension of sweet corn in China. Spermidine (Spd) plays an important role in plant growth and development, but little is known about the effect of Spd on sweet corn seed germination. Therefore the effect of exogenous Spd on seed germination and physiological and biochemical changes during seed imbibition of Xiantian No.5 were investigated in this study.ResultsSpd soaking treatment not only improved seed germination percentage but also significantly enhanced seed vigor which was indicated by higher germination index, vigor index, shoot heights and dry weights of shoot and root compared with the control; while exogenous CHA, the biosynthesis inhibitor of Spd, significantly inhibited seed germination and declined seed vigor. Spd application significantly increased endogenous Spd, gibberellins and ethylene contents and simultaneously reduced ABA concentration in embryos during seed imbibition. In addition, the effects of exogenous Spd on H2O2 and MDA productions were also analyzed. Enhanced H2O2 concentration was observed in Spd-treated seed embryo, while no significant difference of MDA level in seed embryo was observed between Spd treatment and control. However, the lower H2O2 and significantly higher MDA contents than control were detected in CHA-treated seed embryos.ConclusionsThe results suggested that Spd contributing to fast seed germination and high seed vigor of sweet corn might be closely related with the metabolism of hormones including gibberellins, ABA and ethylene, and with the increase of H2O2 in the radical produced partly from Spd oxidation. In addition, Spd might play an important role in cell membrane integrity maintaining.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-016-0951-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Chilling stress is an important constraint for maize seedling establishment in the field. To examine the role of salicylic acid (SA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in response to chilling stress, we investigated the effects of seed priming with SA, H2O2, and SA+H2O2 combination on maize resistance under chilling stress (13°C). Priming with SA, H2O2, and especially SA+H2O2 shortened seed germination time and enhanced seed vigor and seedling growth as compared with hydropriming and non-priming treatments under low temperature. Meanwhile, SA+H2O2 priming notably increased the endogenous H2O2 and SA content, antioxidant enzymes activities and their corresponding genes ZmPAL, ZmSOD4, ZmAPX2, ZmCAT2, and ZmGR expression levels. The α-amylase activity was enhanced to mobilize starch to supply metabolites such as soluble sugar and energy for seed germination under chilling stress. In addition, the SA+H2O2 combination positively up-regulated expressions of gibberellic acid (GA) biosynthesis genes ZmGA20ox1 and ZmGA3ox2, and down-regulated GA catabolism gene ZmGA2ox1 expression; while it promoted GA signaling transduction genes expressions of ZmGID1 and ZmGID2 and decreased the level of seed germination inhibitor gene ZmRGL2. The abscisic acid (ABA) catabolism gene ZmCYP707A2 and the expressions of ZmCPK11 and ZmSnRK2.1 encoding response receptors in ABA signaling pathway were all up-regulated. These results strongly suggested that priming with SA and H2O2 synergistically promoted hormones metabolism and signal transduction, and enhanced energy supply and antioxidant enzymes activities under chilling stress, which were closely relevant with chilling injury alleviation and chilling-tolerance improvement in maize seed.Highlights:Seed germination and seedling growth were significantly improved under chilling stress by priming with SA+H2O2 combination, which was closely relevant with the change of reactive oxygen species, metabolites and energy supply, hormones metabolism and regulation.

No abstract

The competitive adaptive reweighted sampling-successive projections algorithm (CARS-SPA) method was proposed as a novel variable selection approach to process multivariate calibration. The CARS was first used to select informative variables, and then SPA to refine the variables with minimum redundant information. The proposed method was applied to near-infrared (NIR) reflectance data of nicotine in tobacco lamina and NIR transmission data of active ingredient in pesticide formulation. As a result, fewer but more informative variables were selected by CARS-SPA than by direct CARS. In the system of pesticide formulation, a multiple linear regression (MLR) model using variables selected by CARS-SPA provided a better prediction than the full-range partial least-squares (PLS) model, successive projections algorithm (SPA) model and uninformative variables elimination-successive projections algorithm (UVE-SPA) processed model. The variable subsets selected by CARS-SPA included the spectral ranges with sufficient chemical information, whereas the uninformative variables were hardly selected.