TITLE:
Seed Vigor Variation of Agave durangensis Gentry (Agavaceae)
AUTHORS:
Gerardo Barriada-Bernal, Norma Almaraz-Abarca, Tzahyri Gallardo-Velázquez, Isabel Torres-Morán, Yolanda Herrera-Arrieta, Socorro González-Elizondo, Eli Amanda Delgado-Alvarado
KEYWORDS:
Agave Durangensis; Seed Vigor; Germinability; Natural Variation
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.4 No.11,
November
14,
2013
ABSTRACT: Agave durangensis propagates basically by seeds. This
species is economically important because it supports a mescal industry in
Durango, Mexico. At present, its exploitation is overall by collecting plants
from the wild populations. In order to reduce the negative impact of the
collection in the natural populations of A.
durangensis and to improve the mescal industry, it is necessary to
establish plantations with selected seeds for a high vigor. In this paper, the
variation in morphological features, physiological behavior of germination, and
biochemical indicators of seed vigor among three natural populations of A. durangensis was assessed. Variation was
found in the seed weight (0.68 to 1.15 mg/seed), seed dimensions (3.51 × 5.29 to 4.62 × 5.92
mm), germinability reduction at 15°°C related to 25°C (4% to 51%), germination rate
at 25°C (44.0 to 48.5 seeds/day) and at 15°C (5.17 to 6.77 seeds/day),
development reduction at 15°C related to 25°C (86.66% to 91.99%), levels of
seed accumulated phenols (71 to 85 μg/seed), antioxidant potential (42% to 50% reduction of DPPH*),
seed alcohol dehydrogenase activity (ADH) (180 to 1100 μmol NAD+/mg
protein/min), highest ADH activity after imbibitions at 25°C (310.24 to 520.2
μmol NAD+/mg protein/min), and highest ADH activity after
imbibitions at 15°C (170.74 to 440.71 μmol NAD+/mg protein/min). The
variation in the seed vigor was revealed by a principal component analysis
(PCA) based on all the parameters evaluated. PCA clearly discriminated among
the three populations.