Quality of Seeds of Upland Rice Lines Adapted to the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

In the final stages of a plant breeding program, a crucial step is the multiplication of seeds in production fields. Besides a solid planning, the seeds multiplication needs a special attention to guarantee seeds with high quality, genetic integrity, high germination and vigor to the farmer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiologic quality, enzymatic expression and respiratory activity of seeds of 20 elite upland rice lines adapted to the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, from the upland rice breeding program from three Brazilians research institutions. The quality parameters evaluated were root protrusion, number of normal seedlings in the germination test, number of normal seedlings in the germination first count, initial stand from emergence test, speed of emergence index, seedlings shoot and root length, percentage of O2 and CO2 from respiratory activity and the expression pattern of the enzymes alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and malate dehydrogenase (MDH). The seeds quality varied among lines, allowing the selection of lines with best performance. The respiratory activity was lower in seeds of lines with high quality. The enzyme ADH was an excellent marker to infer about the quality of seeds, and the variation in the expression of MDH did not depend on the quality of rice seeds. The lines BRS Esmeralda, CMG1896 and CMG1509 showed high physiologic quality in their seeds, and therefore, they should receive higher attention in rice breeding programs.