Relationships of Brassica Seed Physical Characteristics with Germination Performance and Plant Blindness

Abstract

Brassica oleracea is an important crop species that at early growth stages may exhibit failure of the apical growing point, an abnormality called “blindness”. The occurrence of blindness is promoted by exposure to low temperatures during imbibition and germination, but the causes of sensitivity to such conditions are unknown. We combined three analytical seed technology instruments to explore seed physical properties that are highly correlated with quality parameters and might be used directly for grading or sorting seed lots into subpopulations varying in potential susceptibility to blindness. For image analysis, we used the VideometerLab instrument, which can scan 19 wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared and utilize that information in any combination to potentially identify unique criteria related to seed quality. The iXeed CF Analyzer was utilized to obtain chlorophyll fluorescence values for individual seeds. Chlorophyll contents of many seeds can be used as an indicator of seed maturity, a major contributor to seed quality. Finally, oxygen consumption measurements of individual seeds as obtained with the Q2 instrument are highly correlated with their performance under a wide variety of conditions. Six Brassica seed lots differed in their susceptibility to induction of blindness or loss of viability due to 48 h hydrated incubation at 1.5 ∘C. Analysis of physical and respiratory parameters identified some measurements that were highly correlated with the occurrence of blindness. Higher chlorophyll content, as detected by the CF-Mobile and certain wavelengths in the Videometer, was associated with greater occurrence of blindness or death following the induction treatment, suggesting that more immature seeds may be susceptible to blindness. Further research is required, but methods to detect and sort such seeds based on physical characteristics appear to be feasible.

Fungal identification in peanuts seeds through multispectral images: Technological advances to enhance sanitary quality

“…Also, for other cultivated species, spectral imaging can discriminate physical and physiological characteristics that impact seed quality and agricultural sp. after 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144, 168, 192, 216 performance (Hu et al, 2020;Bello and Bradford, 2021). Therefore, the color analysis peanut seeds, in addition to other spectral characteristics, comprises an opportunity to improve the visual interpretation of contaminated seeds.…”

Seed germination and vigor: ensuring crop sustainability in a changing climate

“…Recently, advancement for assessing viability and vigor using computerized image analysis has proven efficient in numerous crops including soybean, (Lee et al 2017), carrot (De Marchi, Cicero (2017)), maize (Castan et al 2018), onion (Gonçalves et al 2017) and wheat (Fan et al 2020). Additionally, Brassica oleracea is a species susceptible to "blindness," which causes failure at the growing seedling apex early in seedling development, and researchers are developing tools for predicting susceptibility to this vigor-reducing condition by combining multispectral imaging, chlorophyll fluorescence, and oxygen consumption on a seed-by-seed basis (Bello and Bradford 2021). The development of rapid screening and sorting of high vigor seeds may provide a tool for ensuring that only the highest quality seeds are used for sowing (Nehoshtan et al 2021;Seed-X 2021).…”

Applying population-based threshold models to quantify and improve seed quality attributes

“…New developments in seed conditioning and image analysis are creating opportunities to identify and separate seeds on a number of criteria, potentially enabling the upgrading of such lots (Galletti et al, 2020;Mortensen et al, 2021). Correlating these performance indices with physical features of seeds can be applied to guide seed conditioning equipment to remove lower-quality fractions from the seed lot (Bruggink and van Duijn, 2017;Bello and Bradford, 2021; https://www .seed -x .com /product /sorter/; https://videometer .com /videometerlab/; https:// www .vibeia .com /qm3 -seeds -phenotyping -analyzer). Physiological enhancement of seed performance via priming treatments can also be optimized with the use of PBT models (see Section 4.5).…”

“…11b) could guide sorting equipment to remove those seeds from the lot. This is particularly feasible if imaging approaches can also be applied to identify unique characteristics of the two populations by scanning them prior to germination testing, so that the timing of each seed's germination is known and can be associated with detectable physical characteristics for sorting (Bello and Bradford, 2021;Nehoshtan et al, 2021).…”

“…However, this situation is rapidly changing. Methods for imaging of test plates and automated extraction of germination timing information have been available for a decade (Joosen et al, 2010), and improvements in both imaging and analysis methods are occurring rapidly (Silva et al, 2019;Colmer et al, 2020;Bello and Bradford, 2021; https:// www .seed -x .com; https://www .vibeia .com/; https://videometer .com/). In most cases, however, it still has been necessary for a person to move the test plates individually under the imaging system to collect the data, again limiting observations to the times that workers are available.…”