Pericarp permeability of maize seeds evaluated with fluorescent tracers

• Grant number: 13/00563-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: May 03, 2013
• End date: August 02, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Silvio Moure Cicero
• Grantee: Marcos Altomani Neves Dias
• Supervisor: Alan G. Taylor
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Cornell University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/05598-9 - Maize seed treatment with zinc and copper, BP.MS

Abstract

Seed treatment with micronutrients is a potential tool for maize crop nutrition management. This practice provides advantages such as better localization of nutrients, easy application and lower costs. However, due to possible phytotoxic effects caused by seed treatment, there is a need for studies involving the uptake and transport of different compounds applied to seeds. Seed coat permeability to a given compound is a determinant factor for the occurrence of phytotoxicity effects. Moreover, knowledge of seed coat (or pericarp) permeability determines if a seed treatment compound diffuses through the seed coat or is only taken up by roots. The use of fluorescent tracers, which are based on dyes with known physicochemical properties, has shown to be a feasible and efficacious approach for studies related to movement of compounds used for seed treatments. This study aims to assess the maize seed pericarp permeability to fluorescent tracers with distinct characteristics, and associate the results obtained to seed treatment with micronutrients. Therewith, the experiment will be carried out with five seed lots, from different maize genotypes, treated with two fluorescent tracers: coumarin 151 and rhodamine B. Seeds will be placed in moistened sand, being removed from the substrate at different periods (4, 8, 12, 16 and 24 hours) and hand-dissected. Afterwards, the location and intensity of fluorescence will be observed and photographed under long wavelength ultraviolet light (365 nm) with a stereomicroscope. Maize seeds will be classified according to pericarp permeability as permeable, selectively permeable or non-permeable. The results provided will be associated to the seed treatments with micronutrients, based on their physicochemical properties. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DIAS, M. A. N.; TAYLOR, A. G.; CICERO, S. M.. Uptake of systemic seed treatments by maize evaluated with fluorescent tracers. SEED SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, v. 42, n. 1, p. 101-107, 2014. (13/00563-5)