Antioxidative metabolism to separate seed lots with different homogeneity degrees

Abstract

The seeds deteriorationprocess usually occurs in lots that had matured too early or where improper stored, in such cases an excessive production ofreactive oxygen species can occur, however, changes caused by these radicals production are not always detectable by seedsquality standard tests. Thus, the aim was to separate heterogeneous bean seeds lots and homogeneous maize seeds lots throughphysiological seed quality standard tests, and relate them to the activity of antioxidant enzymes activity to detect differences inseeds vigor. Three lots of bean and maize seeds were subjected to analysis of viability, vigor and activity of antioxidant enzymes(superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase and catalase). The physiological standard test allowed classifying the lots ofbeans seeds at different levels of vigor confirming their heterogeneity, however, the analysis of antioxidant enzymes showed nosignificant differences among the lots. As for maize seeds, standard tests did not allow to separate the lots at different levels ofvigor demonstrating their homogeneity, however, the activity of antioxidant enzymes allowed to differentiate them. The analysisof enzyme activity of the antioxidative system is not efficient to differentiate heterogeneous lots of bean seeds, however, it isefficient to detect subtle differences between homogeneous maize seeds lots according vigor.