Seed Dormancy and Pod Dehiscence in Legumes
Introduction
In the natural cycle of life plants germinate when certain prerequisites are met. When that cycle is incorporated into the agricultural process it behooves the farmer to study and determine the most effective agricultural processes to use in order to obtain the most productive planting methods. Some seeds need only to be planted in wet soil to stir them to growth while others require further treatment such as damage to otherwise resistant seed coat or passage through a dormancy period in order to maximize the germination rate.
Seeds developed for agriculture generally fall into the former category, but that is not always the case this is especially true of the cereal crops. Dormancy levels are a key element in effective crop production. If the seed dormancy level is too high it slows crop production. If the dormancy level is to low it can lead to pre-harvest sprouting that results in yield losses. Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization or MALDI is a useful technique in the direct study of chemical composition of plant tissues. This contribution deals with the non-targeted chemical characterization of pea seed coats with respect to dormancy using MALDI experimentation to separate dormant and non-dormant species of peas. The intention of this study is to develop an effective methodology to separate the dormant species from the non-dormant species. This was investigated using of 13 different species of peas and tests were conducted so be able to increase potential for higher agricultural crop yields.
The methodology utilized was to separate the seed coats from the seeds of 13 different species of peas to determine if it is possible to separate dormant and non-dormant species, namely Cameor; P. Fulvum 2140; P sativum Iran; CV terno, L 100; Duhav; JI1794; PI 314007; JI 281; VIR 320; JI 64 and JI 94. Small samples were affixed to two sided gluing tape sprayed with a Trihydroxyacetophenone monohydrate (THAP) that is used for the MALDI Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-MS) of glycoproteins or RNA. THAP matrix is useful in providing complimentary peptide mapping data and subjected infrared spectroscopy. This is known to aid in the production of the exact mass MS and MS/MS capabilities of the MALDI SYNAPT G2-S HDMS System and enables optimal results with enhanced IMS resolving power. This capability enables increased separation of complex mixtures and isobaric ions and proved valuable for comparative measurements. The raw data was further studied using MarkerLynx XS software (Waters)
Using this method, the resultant data did not yield complete separation of dormant and non-dormant species however segregation was observed and can be seen in the related Principal Component Analysis (PCA) plot. Segregation is not related to the color of the seed and pigmented and non-pigmented varieties were distinguishable. The PCA analysis revealed signals in the mass spectra that were possibly contributory to the segregation of dormant and non-dormant seed tissue.
There are some signals in the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) that proved useful. This is particularly significant as this technique produces an infrared spectrum of absorption, emission, and photoconductivity and it can simultaneously collect spectral data in a wide spectral range. Some of the signals in the FTIR spectra are in a certain relation to dormancy although additional experimentation is necessary to statistically prove this potential of using FTIR in the dormancy evaluation process.
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