Publicação
Improvement of the germination protocol of seeds of wild bananas (MUSA ACUMINATA COLLA). Implications for whole seed germination and ex situ germplasm conservation of Crop Wild Relatives of banana (Musa Acuminata Colla)
| Resumo: | Bananas (Musa spp.) are nowadays the most produced and consumed fruit crop in the world. They comprise commercial dessert, plantain bananas and wild relatives (CWR). Despite many efforts, important commercial Banana varieties face the risk of disappearing as a consequence of pests and diseases, global monoculture production and the present climate crisis.Meise Botanic Garden, Belgium (MBG) and Leuven University, Belgium (KU Leuven), in association with international banana research centers (as INIBAP, ITC) and Musa Consortia investigate seed conservation, ex situ, in vitro and cryo- conservation of Musa resources. Regardless of past efforts, there is still little knowledge on Musa’s seed germination, dormancy strategy, and storage behavior. Actual germination protocols are not effective, and they require a long time (months to years) to yield results. Seed dormancy appears to be related to integument constraints, for this reason Embryo Rescue (ER) is the prevalent method to germinate banana seeds.I performed my research in the Seed Bank of MBG and KU Leuven with the goal of contributing to the research on conservation of Musa seed resources and developing a feasible germination protocol of CWR of Musa acuminata, for future implementation in seed banks. My focus was on quantifying initial viability through morphological analyses of seeds (stored and fresh) and testing combined effects of: 1) different dormancy breaking treatments, 2) temperature oscillation regimes and/or 3) substrates, on diverse seed germination protocols. At the end of the experiments, a Cut test followed by a Tetrazolium Chloride test (TTC) or ER test was made to determine the viability of non-germinated seeds; and TTC and ER results were compared to assess the eligibility of TTC as a reliable post-incubation viability test for M. acuminata.Our findings highlight the importance of considering seed morphology and maturity in the development of effective germination protocols for M. acuminata. Despite a substantial number of stored and fresh seeds, and the high number of treatments employed in germination testing, the dormancy-breaking and incubation factors tested proved to be insufficient to effectively overcome the dormancy of M. acuminata seeds. The low Final Germination Percentage and the high percentage of apparent viable seeds after incubation suggest that high dormancy levels are present in both dry and fresh seeds of M. acuminata. In both dry and fresh seeds, the ER technique alleviated dormancy constrains, and it revealed that the type of pre-treatment, substrate and temperature regime have a significant impact in embryo viability. I also concluded that the TTC procedure used in this study is not a reliable and precise test for assessing post-incubation viability of M. acuminata seeds.Despite the ineffectiveness demonstrated by the 18 treatments employed in germination testing, the work developed in this project is essential to understand the relationship between seed morphology and initial viability of seeds. Additionally, it contributes to understand the impact of various pre-treatment and incubation variables on post-incubation seed viability. This knowledge is crucial to design innovative germination tests, either by excluding the factors tested in this project or by incorporating them in alternative combinations. |
|---|---|
| Autores principais: | Santos, Joana Carolina Costa |
| Assunto: | Seed Germination Musa acuminata TTC test Embryo Rescue Dormancy release Germinação de Sementes Musa acuminata teste TTC Resgate de Embriões quebra de Dormência |
| Ano: | 2024 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Coimbra |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Estudo Geral - Universidade de Coimbra |
| Resumo: | Bananas (Musa spp.) are nowadays the most produced and consumed fruit crop in the world. They comprise commercial dessert, plantain bananas and wild relatives (CWR). Despite many efforts, important commercial Banana varieties face the risk of disappearing as a consequence of pests and diseases, global monoculture production and the present climate crisis.Meise Botanic Garden, Belgium (MBG) and Leuven University, Belgium (KU Leuven), in association with international banana research centers (as INIBAP, ITC) and Musa Consortia investigate seed conservation, ex situ, in vitro and cryo- conservation of Musa resources. Regardless of past efforts, there is still little knowledge on Musa’s seed germination, dormancy strategy, and storage behavior. Actual germination protocols are not effective, and they require a long time (months to years) to yield results. Seed dormancy appears to be related to integument constraints, for this reason Embryo Rescue (ER) is the prevalent method to germinate banana seeds.I performed my research in the Seed Bank of MBG and KU Leuven with the goal of contributing to the research on conservation of Musa seed resources and developing a feasible germination protocol of CWR of Musa acuminata, for future implementation in seed banks. My focus was on quantifying initial viability through morphological analyses of seeds (stored and fresh) and testing combined effects of: 1) different dormancy breaking treatments, 2) temperature oscillation regimes and/or 3) substrates, on diverse seed germination protocols. At the end of the experiments, a Cut test followed by a Tetrazolium Chloride test (TTC) or ER test was made to determine the viability of non-germinated seeds; and TTC and ER results were compared to assess the eligibility of TTC as a reliable post-incubation viability test for M. acuminata.Our findings highlight the importance of considering seed morphology and maturity in the development of effective germination protocols for M. acuminata. Despite a substantial number of stored and fresh seeds, and the high number of treatments employed in germination testing, the dormancy-breaking and incubation factors tested proved to be insufficient to effectively overcome the dormancy of M. acuminata seeds. The low Final Germination Percentage and the high percentage of apparent viable seeds after incubation suggest that high dormancy levels are present in both dry and fresh seeds of M. acuminata. In both dry and fresh seeds, the ER technique alleviated dormancy constrains, and it revealed that the type of pre-treatment, substrate and temperature regime have a significant impact in embryo viability. I also concluded that the TTC procedure used in this study is not a reliable and precise test for assessing post-incubation viability of M. acuminata seeds.Despite the ineffectiveness demonstrated by the 18 treatments employed in germination testing, the work developed in this project is essential to understand the relationship between seed morphology and initial viability of seeds. Additionally, it contributes to understand the impact of various pre-treatment and incubation variables on post-incubation seed viability. This knowledge is crucial to design innovative germination tests, either by excluding the factors tested in this project or by incorporating them in alternative combinations. |
|---|