EFFECT OF MATERNAL NUTRIENT ENVIRONMENT OF LITHOSPERMUM ARVENSE ON OFFSPRING GERMINABILITY

LONGÁS M. MERCEDES, CHANTRE GUILLERMO R., SABBATINI MARIO R.

Pucón

Congreso; VI Reunión de Biología Vegetal; 2011

CGNA Centro de Genómica Nutricional Agroacuícola

Lithospermum arvense is an annual weed of winter cereal crops of the south-west area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Environmental factors may change maternal influence on seed development having consequence on the variance of fitness components such as seed dormancy. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of soil nitrogen level on the maternal environment on seed dormancy of the progeny. Plants of L. arvense were fertilized with 0, 50 and 100 Kg N/Ha (urea 46%N) applied at emergence and vegetative stages. Freshly matured seeds (F1) were stored until 3720°C.day and 7719°C.day of after-ripening.  Germination trials were carried out in a growth chamber under a constant thermal regime (15ºC). Seeds were incubated in 9-cm Petri dishes containing soil with different nitrogen enrichment levels (equivalent to 0, 25, 50, 100 and 200 Kg N/Ha). Final germination percentages were recorded after a 21-day incubation period. No interaction was found (p=0.96) among the evaluated factors (level of maternal fertilization*nitrogen incubation medium enrichment level*after ripening time). The effect of nitrogen fertilization level on the maternal environment produced a closely significant effect on the germinability of the progeny (p=0.06), irrespective of soil nitrogen level of the incubation medium. No statistical differences were observed on seed germinability between after ripening time periods. Further studies should be conducted in order to evaluate possible fitness effect of nutrient maternal environment on futures generation (F1, F2, F3).