Location: Agricultural Genetic Resources Preservation Research
Project Number: 3012-21000-017-024-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2025
End Date: Jun 30, 2027
Objective:
The objective of this research is to correlate viability, vigor and longevity traits of seeds gleaned from traditional seed testing methods with new technologies including RNA integrity, oxygen uptake and storage lipid thermal behavior. Seeds to be tested will largely be from wild species native to the US, but a selection of cultivated species needed to standardize studies, or wild relatives of crops originating outside the US will also be tested. The results are expected to contribute to revisions of international standards for seed banking to accommodate bottlenecks presented when testing wild seeds as well as better approximations of seed longevity.
Approach:
Traditional germination assays will use conditions gleaned from personal experience of cooperators, augmented with temperature or chemical cues to break dormancy and speed or synchronize germination. Additional traditional tests will include tetrazolium vital staining. New technologies will be based on RNA integrity, oxygen uptake and storage lipid thermal behavior. Seeds will be acquired from the Seeds of Success Native seed program in the US, seeds collected by Center for Plant Conservation colleagues or seeds provided by NPGS curators. Seeds will be recently harvested and compared with parallel tests conducted on seeds that have been stored for decades.