Title
Reduction of seed dormancy in Echinacea pallida (Nutt.) Nutt. by in-dark seed selection and breeding
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2012
Journal or Book Title
Industrial Crops and Products
Volume
36
Issue
1
First Page
88
Last Page
93
DOI
10.1016/j.indcrop.2011.08.012
Abstract
Strong seed dormancy has been an obstacle for field production of Echinacea species. Previous research on overcoming Echinacea seed dormancy has been extensive and focused on treatment methods, which involve time and expense, and are incompatible with organic production if synthetic chemicals are used. We have attempted to genetically reduce seed dormancy through selection and breeding in Echinacea, by usingEchinacea pallida as a model species. Three accessions were used in this study. Nine parent plants of each accession selected from early, in-dark germinated seeds (in-dark plants) or from late, in-light seeds (in-light plants) were planted and grouped by accession and germination treatment method for seed production through a polycross method. Germination tests indicated that these in-dark plants produced seed (in-dark seed) with significantly reduced seed dormancy when tested under light or dark condition in comparison to the seed of the in-light plants (in-light seed). Among the three accessions, the in-dark seed germinated at much higher rates than did the in-light seed, more than 2× at 25 °C under light and up to an 83× increase in darkness, and up to an 8× increase over the corresponding parental seed lots under comparable germination conditions. In addition to these increases in germination, the in-dark seed showed early and synchronized germination as compared to the in-light seed. Since these results were achieved through only one cycle of selection and breeding, they strongly suggest that we have developed a very effective method for modifying seed dormancy in Echinacea.
Rights
Works produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Qu, Luping and Widrlechner, Mark P., "Reduction of seed dormancy in Echinacea pallida (Nutt.) Nutt. by in-dark seed selection and breeding" (2012). NCRPIS Publications and Papers. 7.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ncrpis_pubs/7
Included in
Agriculture Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Horticulture Commons, Plant Breeding and Genetics Commons
Comments
This article is from Industrial Crops and Products 36, no. 1 (March 2012): 88–93, doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2011.08.012.