SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report

Status: Approved

Basic Information

Participants

Committee members attending: Kent Bradford (University California - Davis); Dan Cantliffe (University of Florida); Richard Heimsch (University of Idaho); Allen Knapp (Iowa State University); Marc Cohn (Louisiana State University); Greg Welbaum (Virginia Tech.); Alan Taylor (Cornell University - Geneva); Dennis TeKrony (University of Kentucky); Tim Loeffler (Colorado State University). Others in attendance from the University of Florida: Ivonka Kozareva, Steven Kabat, Berry Tanner, I., Erika Berghauer, Amanda Collins

Thursday, January 10, 2002

Gathering at the Cabot Lodge at 6:00 pm. Informal discussion and dinner at the Gainesville Ale House at 7:00 pm. Miller McDonald (Ohio State University) in attendance on Thursday.

Friday, January 11, 2002
Dan Cantliffe welcomed the group to the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL at 8:30am. From 8:45 - 9:15 am, Dr. Richard Jones, Dean of Research gave an overview of Florida agriculture, and described the UF/IFAS mission. Moreover, he outlined the challenges of being in a state with a growing population with increased tourism.

Administrator Advisor Richard Heimsch reviewed the W-168 membership and sought updates/possible new members from the committee followed by a discussion on the project rewrite. A general discussion ensued on annual meeting attendance.

The Minutes of the 2001 W-168 meeting were reviewed and approved.
Taylor and Loeffler were nominated and elected as Secretary and Secretary Elect, respectively.

Officers of W-168:
Dan Cantliffe - Chair
Dennis TeKrony - Chair Elect
Alan Taylor - Secretary
Tim Loeffler - Secretary Elect


State reports and discussions on accomplishments, impacts, and future collaborations by units began at 10:30 am and continued through 2:45 pm with a break for lunch.

Marc Cohn reported for Louisiana, and Allen Knapp for Iowa. Ivonka Kozareva, Dan Cantliffe‘s grad student, reported for Florida, Kent Bradford reported for California, and Greg Welbaum for Virginia.

A social outing and dinner was arranged at Cedar Key, FL

Saturday, January 12, 2002

State reports and discussions on accomplishments, impacts, and future collaborations by units began at 9:30 am.

Dennis TeKrony reported for Kentucky, and Alan Taylor for New York (Geneva).

Tim Loeffler reported for Colorado and was a new member. Tim has a teaching responsibility and is Director the Colorado State Seed Testing Lab. He described the status of developing a National Seed Science and Technology distance education program. Loren Wiesner is active with this program and Jack Fenwick at CSU is heading up the effort. The goal was to submit a proposal in early 2002.

The 2003 meeting will be held at the University or Kentucky and Dennis TeKrony will host the meeting. The proposed meeting date was January 9-11, but due to conflicts was changed to January 16-18.

General discussion of project rewrite: Rewrite committee: Taylor, Bradford, Welbaum, Cohn and McDonald (nominated in absentia).

Chronological outline for rewrite:
1) update membership list and invite new members
2) develop a format for each contributing member‘s submission
3) identify collaborative projects based on first draft of submissions
4) develop a working draft prior to the next annual meeting in 2003

The Resolutions are attached. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:30 am. The first Annual W-168 golf tournament was held at approximately 2 pm.

Respectfully submitted,


Alan Taylor, Secretary


RESOLUTION

Because of the high quality of presentations and discussions evident in the 2002 W-168 Regional Technical Committee Meetings and whereas the participants were greatly enriched by the experience to visit the outstanding facilities at the University of Florida, be it resolved that the following accolades be expressed:

WHEREAS appreciation is expressed to Richard Jones for his welcome to the UF/IFAS and description of it‘s mission and outreach.

WHEREAS we gratefully acknowledge the outstanding meals hosted by the Horticultural Sciences Department at the University of Florida.

WHEREAS appreciation is extended to Dan Cantliffe for his attention to local detail, and in promoting Florida tourism.

WHEREAS we extend our continued appreciation to Dick Heimsch as administrative advisor for his assistance, guidance and contributions to the success of W-168 as well as his strong advocacy of W-168 objectives.

WHEREAS we extend our sincere appreciation to Dan Cantliffe for his adept leadership, friendly conduct of our meetings, attention, and providing social outings for the group.

WHEREAS we sincerely appreciate the outstanding service of Dennis TeKrony as Vice-Chair and Alan Taylor as Secretary.

WHEREAS we appreciate the participation of Tim Loeffler as a new member and his willingness to be nominated and elected as Secretary Elect.

THEREFORE be it resolved that the 2002 Regional Technical Committee Meeting has been an unqualified success by fostering the mutual exchange of ideas, improving our understanding of seeds, providing the focus for future research and promoting the importance of seed biology in a sustainable, environmentally compatible natural resource management and conservation agroecosystem.

Accomplishments

Accomplishments - 2001:

Elucidate fundamental mechanisms underlying seed development and germinability

CA - The potential role of galactosyl-sucrose oligosaccharides in the reduced storage life of primed seeds was investigated. No conclusive role could be identified for these oligosaccharides in the longevity of primed seeds. The defense enzymes ?-1,3-glucanase and chitinase were shown to be expressed during tomato seed germination specifically in the endosperm cap tissue just prior to radicle emergence. Microcalorimetry was used to assess seed respiration (metabolic heat) rates during imbibition and germination.
IO - Potential roles of dehydrins, and polyamines are being investigated in resistance to low temperature stress, evaluating protocols by which to characterize resistance to low temperature stress, studying the respiratory transition in seedling development, and developing a project by which to characterize differential gene expression among different inbreds grown under control conditions or exposed to low temperature stresses. Initial evaluations do not indicate an increased production of the polyamines we studied in response to low temperature stress.
NY-I - Molecular structures and absolute configuration by NMR of di- and tri-galactopyranosyl D-chiro-inositols from the fagopyritol A series, each with a galactopyranosyl alpha-1-3-linkage to D-chiro-inositol, and di- and tri-galactopyranosyl D-chiro-inositols from the fagopyritol B series, each with a galactopyranosyl alpha-1-2 linkage to D-chiro-inositol, were characterized and reported. Buckwheat cDNAs representing genes encoding enzymes for the biosynthesis of fagopyritol A1 and fagopyritol B1 were cloned.
OR - The research on the mechanism of carrot seed development and germination was conducted. A new endo-b-mannanase gene DcMAN1 was isolated and characterized. The research revealed that the DcMAN1 endo-b-mannanase is expressed specifically in the endosperm being associated with endosperm degradation and enlargement of a corrosion cavity. The results suggested that this enzyme is associated with the completion of embryogenesis before germination.
VA - Two complete cDNAs, Cmchi1 and Cmchi2, were isolated from germinated muskmelon seeds. Putative roles for chitinase in seeds include developmental regulation and fungal inhibition. Orobanche aegyptiaca cDNAs have been amplified and sequenced that are apparently differentially expressed during seed preconditioning. One of the fragments shows similarity to a putative dioxygenase (ACC oxidase). Previous studies have linked preconditioning of Orobanche aegyptiaca seeds to changes in oxidase activity.


Develop methods for improving seeds as genetic delivery systems

KY - An alternative seed deterioration model accurately predicted the time to loss in 50% seed germination (P50) in three storage environments (40 0C, 14%; 40 0C, 12%, 30 0C, 14%), however, as P50 increased in improved storage conditions (40 0C, 10%; 30 0C, 12% and 20 0C, 14%). Thus, the predicted P50 was much larger than the observed P50, which limits the usefulness of the alternative model. The accelerated ageing test, conducted at 450C, 72h, was the only measure of initial seed vigor that was significantly correlated to P50 in most storage environments.
IA - a.) The second up-date of the Electronic Crop Protection Compendium (CPC) was issued by CAB International in 2001. The Database on Seedborne Diseases component of the CPC continues to be edited at the Seed Science Center, Iowa State University b.) The National Seed Health System was published by USDA-APHIS in the Federal Register and became on July 18, 2001 and was activated one month later. As the administration unit for the NSHS the Seed Science Center continues to coordinating a peer review system to establish standardized seed health tests for the NSHS. It also is the primary source of key documents for the system, including application materials, auditing practices, and training of personnel in accredited entities. A new technology was developed to measure the grain depth in a bin automatically. Since the technology is computer based, it will assist in management and process control issues including identity preservation of biotech grains. A prototype was installed in a 120-feet deep bin in Spirit Lake, Iowa and field tested under loading and unloading conditions. Data collected so far indicated that the technology was working satisfactorily.
LA - Red rice dispersal units were afterripened 0-8 weeks and incubated at water potentials from 0 to -1.6 MPa. Germination capacity and germination rate increased with afterripening and water potential of incubation medium. The seed population was represented as a normal distribution of base water potential, characterized by the hydrotime constant, the mean base water potential and the standard deviation of the distribution. Dark incubation induced secondary dormancy proportionally to the reduction in water potential.
NY-G - Film coating technology was used for the application of seed treatments. In particular, cyromazine, applied as an insecticide seed treatment, was found to consistently control onion maggot, an early season pest of onions.
OH - A system for automated seed vigor assessment is developed that is objective, economical and easy to perform. The system interfaces an imaging device that captures digital images of germinating seedlings to a computer. The images are processed to generate numerical values that collectively represent the quality of a seed lot.
VA - Trehalose is a naturally occurring biological regulator of carbohydrate metabolism in roots of certain species. Trehalose can be applied as a natural growth retardant in micromolar concentrations to limit seedling height of certain bedding plants. Trehalose stimulates microfloral growth which may explain why growth of some species of seedlings is stimulated. Exogenously applied trehalose may be useful as a natural growth retardant and as a drought stress protectant for some types of seedlings.

Define the ecological interactions of seeds with their environment

OR - Seed yields were only affected by row spacing in perennial ryegrass and tall fescue. Yields were the same regardless of row spacing in the 6-12 inch range for perennial ryegrass, but declined in 18- and 24-inch rows. Tall fescue yields were the same for all row spacings between 12 and 24 inches, while lower yields were noted in 6-inch rows. While the number of spikelets and florets in perennial ryegrass increase with widening of the rows to 18 or 24 inches, these increases are not sufficient to compensate for the precipitous loss in spike number as row spacing was widened. A similar analysis for tall fescue showed that seed yield was diminished by narrowing to 6-inch rows as a result of loss in fertile tiller number and perhaps by the expression of other yield components.

Plans for 2002: CA, NY-I, OH, OR and VA will continue to work on the fundamental mechanisms underlying seed development and germinability, with emphasis at the molecular level. IA, LA, and NY-G will develop and examine methods to enhance seed and seedling performance and to characterize seed quality. KY will examine the effect of supra-optimal temperatures on soybean seed quality. OR will continue to examine grass seed production methods that are environmentally safe.

Impacts

  1. These data indicate that non-dormant red rice seeds can be re-induced into the dormant state by water stress. Therefore, draining of fields after harvest and throughout the winter could re-induce dormancy. This is the first indication that dormancy-cycling occurs in red rice (as in many other weeds) and further supports the tenaciousness of red rice as a weed.
  2. The chitinase genes we have discovered may increase the disease resistance of seeds. The potential exists for these genes to be used in transformation work to improve the disease resistance of plants. Trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase/synthase appears to be one of several key genes involved in mycorrhizal interactions between plants and beneficial fungi. This information is one piece of information that will allow us to one day genetically optimize plant mycorrhizal interaction.
  3. Computer imaging of germinating seedlings enhances the use of robotics in a seed testing laboratory thereby increasing the standardization of seed testing results. The research has the potential to improve the ability of the seed conditioners to manage the seeds and grain for identity preservation.
  4. Methods are now established to study gene expression of multiple enzyme systems in relation to seed maturation, phytin and flatulence-producing oligosaccharide biosynthesis, storability of germplasm, and enhanced accumulation of health-related cyclitols in seeds.
  5. Modern planting systems for grass seed crops are based on the use of management practices developed when field burning was the primary method of residue removal. Our results indicate that there were no differences among row spacings for seed yield of creeping red fescue, slender red fescue, and Chewing fescue.

Publications

Baskin, C.C., J.M. Baskin and E.W. Chester. 2001. Morphophysiological dormancy in seeds of Chamaelirium luteum, a long-lived dioecious lily. J. Torrey Bot.Soc.128:7-15.

Baskin, C.C., P. Milberg, L. Andersson and J.M. Baskin. 2001. Seed dormancy-breaking and germination requirements of Drosera anglica, an insectivorous speciesoftheNorthernHemisphere. ActaOecol.22:1-8.

Bloom, T.C., J.M. Baskin, and C.C. Baskin. 2001. Ecological life history of the facultative woodland biennial Arabis laevigata variety laevigata(Brassicaceae): Survivorship. J.TorreyBot.Soc.128:93-108.

Chastain, T.G. 2001. Precipitation and grass seed yield in the Willamette Valley. In W.C. Young III (ed.) Seed Production. Crop Sci. Ext. Rep. 115:39-41.

Chastain, T.G., W.C. Young III, C.J. Garbacik, and T.B. Silberstein. 2001. Seed yield enhancement by Palisade: yield component and stand age effects in perennial ryegrass seed crops. In W.C. Young III (ed.) Seed Production. Crop Sci. Ext. Rep. 115:31-33.

Chen, F., Dahal, P., and Bradford, K.J. 2001. Two tomato expansin genes show divergent expression and localization in embryos during seed development and germination. Plant Physiol. 127 : 928-936.

Copeland, L. O. and M. B. McDonald, Jr. 2001. Principles of Seed Science and Technology. 4th ed. Kluwer Press, New York. 409 pp.

Daniels J. L., Munkvold, G. P, and McGee, D. C. 2001. Comparison of infected seed and bean leaf beetles as inoculum sources for bean pod mottle virus. Phytopathology 91, 6 S20

Downie,A.B. 2001. Seed Maturation, Germination, and Dormancy. In: Current trends in the embryology of angiosperms. (SS Bhojwani and WY Soh, Eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London. pgs. 375-418.

Edelstein, M., Bradford, K.J. and Burger, D.W. 2001. Metabolic heat and CO2 production rates during germination of melon (Cucumis melo L.) seeds measured by microcalorimetry. Seed Sci. Res. 11: 265-272.

Egli, D.B., and W.P. Bruening. 2001. Source-sink relationships, seed sucrose levels and seed growth rates in soybean. Ann. Bot. 88: 235-242.

Footitt, S. and Cohn, M.A. (2001) Developmental arrest: from sea urchins to seeds. Seed Science Research 11, 3-16.

Geneve R. and S. T. Kester. 2001. Evaluation of seedling size following germination using computer-aided analysis of digital images from a flat bed scanner. HortScience 36:117-20.

Gianinetti, A. and Cohn, M.A. (2001) Interaction of dry-afterripening and incubation temperature in red rice. Proceedings of the XLV Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual congress, Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy - 26/29 September 2001. also presented in Abstr Stress in Seed Biology Symposium, Wageningen, The Netherlands (April 2001)

Gurusinghe, S., and Bradford, K.J. 2001. Galactosyl-sucrose oligosaccharides and potential longevity of primed seeds. Seed Sci. Res. 11: 121-133.

Hamman, B., H. Halmajan, and D.B. Egli. 2001. Single seed conductivity and seedling emergence in soybean. Seed Sci. and Tech. 29: 575-586.

Harrison, S.A., Croughan, T.P., Materne, M.D., Venuto, B.C., Breitenbeck, G.A., Cohn, M.A., Fang, X.B., Ryan, A., Schneider, R.W., Shadow, R.A., Subudhi, P. and Utomo, H. (2001) Improving native plants to protect and preserve Louisiana‘s coastal marshes. Louisiana Agriculture 44, 4-5.

Hidayati, S. N., J. M. Baskin, and C. C. Baskin. 2001. Dormancy-breaking and germination requirements for seeds of Symphoricarpos orbiculatu (Caprifoliaceae).Amer.J.Bot.88:1444-1451.

Kataki, P. K. and A. G. Taylor. 2001. Time course study of ethanol production by corn and soybean to optimize the use of ANA ethanol index as an accurate seed quality test. J. New Seeds 3: 1-17.

Katzman, L. S., A. G. Taylor, and R. W. Langhans. 2001. Improvement of spinach germination by seed enhancements. HortScience 36: 979-981. Koning, Gwen, D. M. TeKrony, T. W. Pfeiffer and S. A. Ghabrial. 2001. Infection of soybean with soybean mosaic virus increases susceptibility to Phomopsis spp. seed infection. Crop Science 41: 1850-1856.

McDonald, M. B. 2001. Seed priming. In: Seed Technology and Its Biological Basis (eds. M. Black and D. Bewley), Pp. 287-316. Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield, England.

McDonald, M. B., A. F. Evans, and M. A. Bennett. 2001. Using scanners to improve seed/seedling evaluations. Seed Sci. & Technol. 29:683-689.

McDonald, M. B., T. K. Gutormson and B. Turnipseed (editors). 2001. Seed Technologist Training Manual. Soc. Comm. Seed Technol.

McGee, D. C. 2001. Editor Database on Seedborne Diseases component of the CAB International Crop Protection Compendium. CABI, Wallingford, UK.

McGee, D. C. 2001 A risk analysis model using the CABI database. Phytopathology 91, 6 S2153

Meints, P. D., Chastain, T.G., W.C. Young III, G.M. Banowetz, and C. J. Garbacik. 2001. Stubble management effects on three creeping red fescue cultivars grown for seed production. Agron. J. 93:1276-1281.

Modi, A. T., J. C. Jang, J. G. Streeter and M. B. McDonald. 2001. Accumulation of glyoxylate cycle enzymes in soybean seed embryo tissues during development and germination. Seed Sci. & Technol. 29:387-400.

Pineda, R., A.D. Knapp, J.C. Hoekstra, and D.C. Johnson. 2001. Integrated square-wave detection of biogenic amines in soybean seeds following their separations by liquid chromatography. Anal. Chim. Acta. 449:111-117.

Sako, Y., M. B. McDonald, K. Fujimura, A. F. Evans, and M. A. Bennett. 2001. A system for automated seed vigour assessment. Seed Sci. & Technol. 29:625-636.

Sako, Y., E. E. Regnier, T. Daoust, K. Fujimura, S. K. Harrison, and M. B. McDonald. 2001. Computer image analysis and classification of giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida) seeds. Weed Sci. 49:738-745.

Shen, Z.X., Parrish, D.J., Wolf, D.D., Welbaum, G.E. (2001) Stratification in switchgrass seeds is reversed and hastened by drying Crop Science 41 1546-1551.

Silberstein, T.B., W.C. Young III, T.G. Chastain, and C.J. Garbacik. 2001. Response of cool-season grasses to foliar applications of Palisade (trinexapac-ethyl) plant growth regulator, 2000. In W.C. Young III (ed.) Seed Production. Crop Sci. Ext. Rep. 115:24-30.

Silberstein, T.B., W.C. Young III, T.G. Chastain, and C.J. Garbacik. 2001. Response of cool-season grasses to foliar applications of Apogee (prohexadione-calcium) plant growth regulator, 2000. In W.C. Young III (ed.) Seed Production. Crop Sci. Ext. Rep. 115:33-36.

Slawinska, J., and R. L. Obendorf. 2001. Buckwheat seed set in planta and during in vitro inflorescence culture: Evaluation of temperature and water deficit stress. Seed Sci. Res. 11: 223-233.

Steadman, K. J., M. S. Burgoon, B. A. Lewis, S. E. Edwardson and R. L. Obendorf. 2001. Minerals, phytic acid, tannin, and rutin in buckwheat seed milling fractions. J. Sci. Food Agric. 81: 1094-1100.

Steadman, K. J., M. S. Burgoon, B. A. Lewis, S. E. Edwardson and R. L. Obendorf. 2001. Buckwheat milling fractions: Description, macronutrient compositon, and dietary fiber. J. Cereal Sci. 33: 271-278.

Steadman, K. J., D. J. Fuller and R. L. Obendorf. 2001. Purification and molecular structure of two digalactosyl D-chiro-inositols and two trigalactosyl D-chiro-inositols from buckwheat seeds. Carbohydr. Res. 331: 19-25.

Steenhoek, L. M. Misra,, W.D. Batchelor, and J. Davidson. 2001. Probabilistic neural networks for segmentation of features in corn kernel images. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, Vol. 17(2), 225-234.

Steenhoek, L., Misra, M., Hurburgh, C., C. Bern. 2001. Implementing a computer vision System for Corn Kernel Damage Evaluation. Applied Engineering in Agriculture, Vol. 17(2): 235-240.

Taylor, A. G., C. J. Eckenrode and R. W. Straub. 2001. Seed treatments for onions: Challenges and progress. HortScience 36(2): 199-205.

Taylor, A. G., and J. Kwiatkowski. 2001. Polymer film coatings decrease water uptake and water vapour movement into seeds and reduce imbibitional chilling injury. British Crop Protection Council Symposium Proceedings No. 76. p. 215-220.

Taylor, D. P. and R. L. Obendorf. 2001. Quantitative assessment of some factors limiting seed set in buckwheat. Crop Sci. 41: 1792-1799.

TeKrony, D. M., D, B. Egli and M. Rucker. 2001. Survival characteristics of inbred corn seed during storage. Seed Technology 23: 197-205.

Vieira, R. D., D. M. TeKrony, D. B. Egli and M. Rucker. 2001.Electrical conductivity of soybean seeds after storage in several environments. Seed Science and Technology 29: 599-608.

Wu, C.T., Leubner-Metzger, G., Meins, F. Jr. and Bradford K.J. 2001. Class I _-1,3-glucanase and chitinase are expressed specifically in the micropylar endosperm of tomato seeds prior to radicle emergence. Plant Physiol. 126: 1299-1313.

Young III, W.C., M.E. Mellbye, G.A. Gingrich, T.B. Silberstein, T.G. Chastain, and J.M. Hart. 2001. Defining optimum nitrogen fertilizer practices for grass seed production systems in the Willamette Valley. In W.C. Young III (ed.) Seed Production. Crop Sci. Ext. Rep. 115:1-8.

Welbaum, G.E., Frantz, J.M., Gunatilaka, M.K., Shen, Z.X. (2001) A comparison of the growth, establishment, and maturity of direct-seeded and transplanted sh2 sweet corn HortScience 39 (4) 261-265.
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