Potential of two hydration treatments for improvement of sunflower seed vigour

Seed deterioration is an unavoidable process to which seeds of oilseed plant species such as sunflower are especially sensitive. This study aimed to determine whether different invigoration techniques can improve the attributes of germination in sunflower and alleviate the effects of seed ageing. Both aged and non-aged seeds were subjected to invigoration by pre-soaking with distilled water and with 3% of KH2PO4 for 24 hours at 25°C. Germination performance, seedling growth and SDS-PAGE protein profile were determined. The outcome of invigoration depended on the condition of the seeds: invigoration of seeds with both water and KH2PO4 reduced the percentage of germination in non-aged seeds, while in aged seeds there was an increase in germination compared to the control. The SDS-PAGE seed protein profiles revealed that the low molecular weight proteins produced high-intensity bands and the high molecular weight proteins were in low concentrations. After accelerated ageing followed by H2O treatment, some bands of proteins appeared in the region of 2S albumins and were associated with a higher percentage of germination. Our results point out that invigoration treatments were more effective in low vigour seeds which can provide wide practical benefits.