Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2007
Red rice (Oryza sativa L.) dispersal units (florets) were dry-afterripened for 0–8 weeks and subsequently incubated at 30°C in polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions with water potentials from 0 to − 1.6 MPa. Germination percentages and rates increased with dry-afterripening and water potential of the incubation medium. The seed population exhibited a normal distribution of base water potentials (Ψb, i.e. minimum water potential allowing germination) among individual seeds, characterized by three parameters: the hydrotime constant (θH), the mean base water potential (Ψb) and the standard deviation of the base water potential distribution (σΨb). Changes in germination during afterripening could be described by modifications of such parameters, particularly Ψb, which was employed to derive an index, DH(ARX = Ψb(ARX) − Ψb(ARN), where DH(ARX) represents a measure of dormancy of the seed population (in MPa) based on the hydrotime model, Ψb(ARX) is the mean base water potential of the seed population at any afterripening time X, and Ψb(ARN) is the mean water potential of the non-dormant (fully afterripened) population. The introduction of this index permitted interpretation of afterripening as a measurable reduction in the dormancy status of the seed, with progressive acquisition of both full germinative capacity and maximum germination rate, as anticipated by the hydrotime model. Moreover, secondary dormancy was induced proportionally to the reduction in water potential in the dark. Susceptibility to secondary dormancy induction was defined through DI(ARX), an index analogous to DH(ARX). These indices revealed that, in red rice, both breaking of primary dormancy and the inducibility of secondary dormancy followed decay kinetics with different sensitivities to the duration of dry storage.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.