Handbook of Seed Physiology: applications to agriculture.

BENECH-ARNOLD, R.L Y SÁNCHEZ, R.A. (EDS.)

Food Product Press

Lugar: Nueva York, USA; Año: 2004 p. 480

1-56022-929-2

Seeds have always caught the attention of both plant physiologists and agriculturists. Plant physiologists have been attracted by the multiplicity of processes that take place in such a small organ (i.e. desiccation tolerance, reserve deposition and utilization, dormancy and germination); agriculturists, in turn, have been well aware from the beginning that the establishment of the “next crop” and the quality of their end product depend largely on “seed performance”. Considerable progress has been made in the last decades in the field of seed physiology. The advancement made in some topics of this discipline is sufficient now to suggest approaches towards solving practical problems. On the other hand, attempts to solve problems often raise issues or suggest approaches to more fundamental problems.   This book is a collection of chapters dealing with different aspects of seed physiology, each one having strong implications in crop management and utilization. The book has been divided in four major sections: i) Germination in the soil and stand establishment; ii) Dormancy and the behavior of crops and weeds; iii) Seed longevity and storage, and iv) Industrial quality of Seeds. Each major section is composed of  chapters dealing with specific aspects of the agricultural problem that is referred to in the title of the section. Each chapter covers the most recent findings in the area, treated at a basic level (physiological, biochemical and molecular level) but depicting the way in which that basic knowledge can be used for the development of tools leading to increase crop yield and/or to improve industrial use of the grain.   Section i) has been thought to cover different aspects of crop germination and establishment: the physics of the seed environment, together with seed behavior in the soil in relation to seed-bed preparation, are described in an introductory chapter of this section. The rest of the section is devoted to discuss seed responses to temperature and water availability, modeling crop emergence, breeding for germination at low temperatures and water availability, and techniques for improving crop germination performance in the field.   Section ii) covers dormancy problems in crop production. The first two chapters consider  problems derived from the lack of control we have on the timing of exit from dormancy in grain crops: preharvest sprouting and the persistence of dormancy until the next sowing or seed industrial utilization. In the third chapter the termination of dormancy and the induction of germination is analyzed at a physiological and molecular level, mainly on the basis of the knowledge accumulated for two model species: tomato and Datura ferox. The section is completed with a chapter dealing with dormancy in weedy species and the possibility of considering it in the generation of predictive models of weed emergence.   Section iii) is aimed to present an update in the field of seed longevity and conservation. The section is divided in two chapters dealing with orthodox and recalcitrant seeds respectively.   Section iv) is designed to consider aspects related with the industrial use of seeds. The section has been divided in three chapters: one considering cereal grain quality for flour production, another one dealing with industrial quality of oil crops, and a third one devoted to discuss the development of good malting quality.    We attempted to give this book a different scope than that given to other valuable works that have been published recently in the area of seed biology. For example, the book Seed Biology and the Yield of Grain Crops, written by Dennis Egli (CAB International, 1998) covers only a limited amount of aspects of seed biology related to crop production (namely, those related to the determination of grain weight). On the other hand, the book Seeds, written by J. Derek Bewley and Michael Black (Plenum Press, 1994), is an excellent text book on seed biology but is not focused on crop production. Similarly, the comprehensive Seed Development and Germination, edited by J. Kigel and G. Galili (Marcel Dekker, 1995), sets the state-of-the-art in seed science, without paying particular attention to the application of that basic knowledge for the resolution of agricultural problems. The books Seeds: the ecology of regeneration in plant communities (edited by Michael Fenner, CAB International, 1992) and Seeds: Ecology, biogeography and evolution of dormancy and germination, written by Carol and Jerry Baskin (Academic Press, 1998) are directed to discuss aspects of seed biology with the aim of understanding ecological processes. Seed Quality: Basic mechanisms and agricultural implications, edited by A.S. Basra (The Haworth Press, 1995) and Seed technology and its biological basis, edited by M. Black and J.D. Bewley Sheffield (Sheffield Academic Press, 2000) are possibly  most related to this work. Even though, our book intends to cover aspects that are not covered either in Seed Quality... or in Seed technology….  (i.e. dormancy of crops and weeds; models for predicting crop germination in the field, etc.).