Viability and genetic integrity of African eggplant (<i>Solanum</i> spp.) seeds during natural ageing under cold dry storage

Jonas Nickas; Sognigbé N'Danikou; Abdul J. Shango; Newton Kilasi; Jonas Nickas; Sognigbé N'Danikou; Abdul J. Shango; Newton Kilasi

doi:10.48130/seedbio-0024-0003

Figures (4) Tables (4)

Figure 1.
Comet image of one of nucleoids captured from a microscopic slide (200× magnification).
Figure 2.
The initial and final mean germination percentages (mean germination ± standard error) of (a) Tengeru White, (b) DB3, (c) UG-AE-16 and (d) RW-AE-7 seed lots stored for 2, 5 and 12 years at 10 °C.
Figure 3.
Germination percentage temperature of African eggplant at 24 °C in screen house for 14 d against maternal plant growing conditions: (a) temperature (°C) and (b) rainfall (mm).
Figure 4.
Relationship of germination energy and mean tail intensity in imbibed seeds of stored genotypes under cold room conditions.
Year Average monthly
temperature (°C) Average monthly
rainfall (mm) Season

2010 24.70 115.30 Rainy
2017 20.40 11.00 Dry
2020 23.22 326.66 Rainy

Table 1.
Maternal growing conditions during seed regeneration.

Parameters	Storage period in years	Accessions
Parameters	Storage period in years	DB3	RW-AE-7	Tengeru White	UG-AE-16
Germination energy	2	87.25 ± 1.44a^A	25.50 ± 0.6b^C	85.25 ± 2.84a^B	21.50 ± 5.81b^D
	5	73.75 ± 3.038b^D	75.00 ± 0.91a^C	76.50 ± 5.20a^B	83.00 ± 3.79a^A
	12	6.00 ± 1.22c^D	13.50 ± 1.94b^C	14.25 ± 1.31b^B	20.50 ± 3.12b^A
Seed vigour index I	2	468.72 ± 29.20a^A	283.80 ± 20.11ab^B	419.44 ± 32.12a^A	253.44 ± 8.25b^B
	5	367.72 ± 21.65b^B	454.86 ± 28.67a^A	406.57 ± 16.31a^AB	389.79 ± 12.30a^AB
	12	49.50 ± 3.73b^C	158.40 ± 4.40b^B	269.10 ± 12.13b^A	274.28 ± 16.17ab^A
Seed vigour index II	2	0.47 ± 0.21ab^B	0.27 ± 0.04ab^BC	0.79 ± 0.11a^A	0.21 ± 0.05b^C
	5	0.51 ± 0.15a^A	0.39 ± 0.13a^A	0.72 ± 0.61a^A	0.60 ± 0.20a^A
	12	0.05 ± 0.01b^B	0.19 ± 0.05b^AB	0.33 ± 0.18a^A	0.29 ± 0.09ab^A
1000-seed weight (g)	2	2.78 ± 0.04a^A	2.69 ± 0.026a^B	2.39 ± 0.02a^C	2.06 ± 0.22a^D
	5	2.52 ± 0.02b^B	2.54 ± 0.03b^A	2.38 ± 0.013b^C	2.04 ± 0.03b^D
	12	2.08 ± 0.029c^B	1.94 ± 0.02c^C	2.24 ± 0.02c^A	1.89 ± 0.03c^D
Seed moisture content (%)	2	9.03 ± 0.02b^B	9.25 ± 0.18b^B	9.21 ± 0.17b^B	11.60 ± 0.31a^A
	5	11.20 ± 0.30a^B	7.68 ± 0.46a^A	10.50 ± 0.05a^B	10.70 ± 0.04b^B
	12	8.80 ± 0.12b^B	10.10 ± 0.35b^A	8.89 ± 0.67b^B	10.30 ± 0.04b^A
The letters after the mean values represent statistical differences of seed traits between regeneration years down the column (lowercase letters) and between accessions across the row (uppercase letters), at 5% significance level (p < 0.05) (results from One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test).

Table 2.

Seed traits for seed lots regenerated in different years (mean ± standard error).

Parameters	GE	SVI	SVII	TSW	DNA repair	Genotoxic effect
GP	0.86***	0.92***	0.64***	0.51***	−0.82***	−0.55***
GE		0.82***	0.63***	0.56***	−0.61***	−0.56***
SVI			0.61***	0.59***	−0.80***	−0.55***
SVII				0.28*	−0.49***	−0.33**
TSW					−0.59***	−0.46***
DNA repair						0.65***
* Significant at 0.1% level of probability, significant at 1% level of probability, and * significant at 5% level of probability. TSW = 1000-seed weight (g), GP = germination percentage (%), GE = germination energy (%), SVI = seed vigour index I, and SVII = seed vigour index II.

Table 3.

Pearson's correlation (r²) of seed germination, seed vigour, seed metrics and genetic integrity in African eggplant genotypes of stored seed lots.

Storage period in years		Genotypes
Storage period in years		DB3	RW-AE-7	Tengeru White	UG-AE-16
Non-imbibed seeds	2	0.53 ± 0.512b^A	1.54 ± 0.833b^A	0.568 ± 0.642b^A	3.01 ± 1.77a^A
	5	0.06 ± 0.045b^A	0.33 ± 0.303b^A	0.40 ± 0.353b^A	1.13 ± 1.08a^A
	12	8.80 ± 1.59a^BC	41.0 ± 5.67a^A	18.30 ± 7.76a^B	1.69 ± 1.59a^C
Imbibed seeds	2	0.26 ± 0.161b^B	2.67 ± 0.507b^B	2.09 ± 0.942a^B	16.50 ± 4.05a^A
	5	8.38 ± 2.03b^A	4.69 ± 0.351b^A	5.82 ± 5.73a^A	6.06 ± 1.36b^A
	12	28.90 ± 7.15a^A	28.60 ± 2.46a^A	4.72 ± 2.49a^B	4.87 ± 1.40b^B
The letters after the mean values represent statistical differences of seed traits between regeneration years down the column (lowercase letters) and between genotypes across the row (uppercase letters), at 5% significance level (p < 0.05) (results from One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test).

Table 4.

Mean tail DNA intensity (%) (mean ± standard error) of imbibed and non-imbibed seeds of African eggplant genotypes stored under 10˚C and for different durations.

Year	Average monthly temperature (°C)	Average monthly rainfall (mm)	Season
2010	24.70	115.30	Rainy
2017	20.40	11.00	Dry
2020	23.22	326.66	Rainy