Accelerated aging reduces enzyme activity and seedling growth of maize seeds

Changes of bio-chemical and reduction of seedling growth are consequence of seed deterioration. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of accelerated aging on maize seed germination indexes and enzyme activity. Seeds were incubated in closed plastic boxes for the accelerated aging treatments. Three accelerate aging regimes were performed by placing seeds at 41°C and relative humidity (RH) of 90-100 % for 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16 days periods. Our results showed that increasing aging duration resulted higher reduction in germination characteristics, catalase and ascorbat peroxidase. Germination percentage, means time to germination, germination index, normal seedling percentage and enzyme activity decrease significantly.

کلیدواژه ها:

Aging ، Germination indexes ، Enzyme activity ، maize seed