Version 1
: Received: 9 September 2021 / Approved: 15 September 2021 / Online: 15 September 2021 (12:19:18 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 5 November 2021 / Approved: 5 November 2021 / Online: 5 November 2021 (14:00:34 CET)
Version 3
: Received: 17 November 2021 / Approved: 17 November 2021 / Online: 17 November 2021 (13:15:02 CET)
Lamont, B.B. Seed Biologists Beware: Estimates of Initial Viability Based on Ungerminated Seeds at the End of an Experiment May Be Error‐prone. Plant Biology 2022, 24, 399–403, doi:10.1111/plb.13407.
Lamont, B.B. Seed Biologists Beware: Estimates of Initial Viability Based on Ungerminated Seeds at the End of an Experiment May Be Error‐prone. Plant Biology 2022, 24, 399–403, doi:10.1111/plb.13407.
Lamont, B.B. Seed Biologists Beware: Estimates of Initial Viability Based on Ungerminated Seeds at the End of an Experiment May Be Error‐prone. Plant Biology 2022, 24, 399–403, doi:10.1111/plb.13407.
Lamont, B.B. Seed Biologists Beware: Estimates of Initial Viability Based on Ungerminated Seeds at the End of an Experiment May Be Error‐prone. Plant Biology 2022, 24, 399–403, doi:10.1111/plb.13407.
Abstract
Seed viability is routinely measured on seeds that fail to germinate at the end of an experiment. Together with the number of germinants, this is used to estimate viability of the seeds at start of the experiment (i.e., initial viability) and provides the comparative basis on which germination success is determined. Perusal of the literature shows that sometimes (perhaps often, as the problem has yet to be recognized or reported) prolonged duration in the treatment, especially the control where little germination occurs, can lead to loss of viability. This results in underestimation of initial viability if that treatment is used. I caution against the routine use of end-of-trial germination and viability of ungerminated seeds as an estimate of initial viability in determining germination success of various treatments. I explore ways to deal with the problem but the preference is for estimates of initial viability to be undertaken on a separate sample of seeds concurrently with the experiment as this avoids the risk of seed death during the trial.
Keywords
germination; Leucadendron; seed storage; seed viability estimation; viability loss
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Received:
17 November 2021
Commenter:
Byron Lamont
Commenter's Conflict of Interests:
Author
Comment:
Costi et al (2006) replaced by Serter Çatav et al. (2017) as the lead auhor correctly pointed out that they assessed seed viability on a separate batch of seeds at the start of the trial as i recommend (but of course Serter Çatav et al. (2017), working on 33 species in Turkey, do not). Several sections were alos repeated and these have now been deleted.
Commenter: Byron Lamont
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author