Modelling the vigour of maize seeds submitted to artificial accelerated ageing based on ATR-FTIR data and chemometric tools (PCA, HCA and PLS-DA)

Gisiane Camargo Andrade; Cileide Maria Medeiros Coelho; Virgílio Gavicho Uarrota

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03477

Modelling the vigour of maize seeds submitted to artificial accelerated ageing based on ATR-FTIR data and chemometric tools (PCA, HCA and PLS-DA)

Heliyon. 2020 Feb 26;6(2):e03477. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03477. eCollection 2020 Feb.

Authors

Gisiane Camargo Andrade¹, Cileide Maria Medeiros Coelho¹, Virgílio Gavicho Uarrota²

Affiliations

¹ Santa Catarina State University, Agroveterinary Science Centre, Laboratory of Seed Analysis, Luiz de Camões Avenue 2090, Lages, SC, Brazil.
² Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, Escuela de Agronomia, Calle San Francisco S/N, La Palma, Quillota, Chile.

Abstract

The main goals of this research were to use ATR-FTIR spectroscopy associated with multivariate analyses to identify biochemical changes in high and low vigour seed tissues (embryo and endosperm) in response to accelerated ageing and to create a model to predict seed vigour based on spectroscopic data. High-vigour seeds undergo minimal changes in biochemical composition during stress by accelerated ageing while low-vigour seeds are more sensitive to stress and this lower tolerance is associated with reduced lipid and protein content and increased amino acids, carbohydrates and phosphorus compounds in the embryo. High-vigour seeds show an increase in peaks associated with amino acids and phosphorous compounds in the endosperm after 24 h of stress while low-vigour seeds present these high-intensity peaks only after 72 h in the embryo. The results of this research provide the theoretical basis for the genetic improvement of maize cultivars that aim at higher physiological seed quality.

Keywords: ATR-FTIR spectra; Agricultural science; Biochemical compounds; Biochemistry; Chemometrics; Food chemistry; Functional groups; Natural product chemistry; Physiological quality of seeds; Vigour of maize seeds.