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Seed priming: state of the art and new perspectives

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Abstract

Priming applied to commercial seed lots is widely used by seed technologists to enhance seed vigour in terms of germination potential and increased stress tolerance. Priming can be also valuable to seed bank operators who need improved protocols of ex situ conservation of germplasm collections (crop and native species). Depending on plant species, seed morphology and physiology, different priming treatments can be applied, all of them triggering the so-called ‘pre-germinative metabolism’. This physiological process takes place during early seed imbibition and includes the seed repair response (activation of DNA repair pathways and antioxidant mechanisms), essential to preserve genome integrity, ensuring proper germination and seedling development. The review provides an overview of priming technology, describing the range of physical–chemical and biological treatments currently available. Optimised priming protocols can be designed using the ‘hydrotime concept’ analysis which provides the theoretical bases for assessing the relationship between water potential and germination rate. Despite the efforts so far reported to further improve seed priming, novel ideas and cutting-edge investigations need to be brought into this technological sector of agri-seed industry. Multidisciplinary translational research combining digital, bioinformatic and molecular tools will significantly contribute to expand the range of priming applications to other relevant commercial sectors, e.g. the native seed market.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Regione Lombardia D.G. Istruzione, Formazione e Lavoro, Struttura Asse V—Interregionalità e Transnazionalità POR FSE 2007-2013, Project ID 46547514 ‘Advanced Priming Technologies for the Lombardy Agro-Seed Industry-PRIMTECH’ (Action 2). S.P. has been awarded by a Research Fellowship from Regione Lombardia within the same project. S.A. has been awarded by a Research Contract (Recruited Foreign Scientist) funded by CARIPLO Foundation within the same project (Action 3) Code 2013-1727. M. W. has been awarded by a PhD Fellowship within the NASSTEC (The NAtive Seed Science TEchnology and Conservation Initial Training Network) project, proposal Number 607785 (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Author notes

  1. S. S. Araújo

    Present address: Department of Biology and Biotechnology ‘L. Spallanzani’, via Ferrata 1, 27100, Pavia, Italy

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology and Biotechnology ‘L. Spallanzani’, via Ferrata 1, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    S. Paparella, D. Carbonera & Alma Balestrazzi

  2. Plant Cell Biotechnology Laboratory, Instituto de Technologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (ITQB-UNL), Avenida da República, EAN, 2780-157, Oeiras, Portugal

    S. S. Araújo

  3. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, via S. Epifanio 14, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    G. Rossi & M. Wijayasinghe

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  1. S. Paparella
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Correspondence to Alma Balestrazzi.

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Communicated by N. Stewart.

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Paparella, S., Araújo, S.S., Rossi, G. et al. Seed priming: state of the art and new perspectives. Plant Cell Rep 34, 1281–1293 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-015-1784-y

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