Atmosphere modification system for respiration analysis of recalcitrant seeds during storage

Abstract

The modification of atmosphere composition is a strategy to prolong the storage of organisms susceptible to senescence. Atmospheres with high levels of carbon dioxide could be applied to prolong the viability of recalcitrant seeds, which are in a constant process of deterioration due to intense metabolic activity. However, there is a need to develop methods that allow the standardized generation of these modified atmospheres to isolate the effect of low oxygen from high carbon dioxide. In this study, the generation of modified atmospheres was carried out by experiments with insufflated gas (IG) or compensated vacuum (CV), on recalcitrant Inga vera embryos as an experimental model. In IG, CO2 and N2 were uninterruptedly injected into a mixing chamber, in which the gases underwent turbulence to be homogenized and subsequently applied to the flasks where the embryos were incubated. In CV, the embryos were placed in flasks, from which a fraction of the air present inside was removed, and subsequently, the gases of interest were injected in defined fractions. The CV method proved to be more efficient and it was possible to restrict the respiratory metabolism of the Inga vera embryos by reducing respiration with the increase in carbon dioxide applied exogenously.