Selenium (Se) hyperaccumulator plants can concentrate the toxic element Se up to 1% of shoot (DW) which is known to protect hyperaccumulator plants from generalist herbivores. There is evidence for Se-resistant insect herbivores capable of feeding upon hyperaccumulators. In this study, resistance to Se was investigated in seed chalcids and seed beetles found consuming seeds inside pods of Se-hy...

Ageing induces seed deterioration expressed as the loss of seed vigor and/or viability. Priming treatment, which consists in soaking of seeds in a solution of low water potential, has been shown to reinvigorate aged seeds. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of naturally and accelerated aging on seed germination traits and enzyme activities (proxidase, catalase and superoxid dis...

Birds are important seed dispersers for fleshy fruits through their transportation of ingested seeds. The seeds of many species germinate faster and in greater proportions after passing through a digestive tract, although the effects of this passage vary amongst bird and plant species. Many factors determine the germination success of ingested seeds, such as seed scarification during the digest...

In this research, the breakage susceptibility of two classes of lentil (green and red) was evaluated as affected by impact energy and seed moisture content. The experiments were conducted at impact energies of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 J, and moisture contents of 10, 12.5, 15, 17.5, 20 and 25% (wet basis). Results showed that red lentil seeds had more breakage than green seeds and the difference in brea...

mechanical damage due to harvesting, handling, and other processes is an important factor that affects the seeds quality. seed damage results in lower grain value and more storability problem and reduces seed germination and seedling vigor and subsequent yield of crops. tests were conducted to determine the percentage of physical damage (ppd) and percentage of loss in germination (plg) of wheat...

The ultra-weak luminescence (UWL) feature of plant seeds is investigated. Before UWL measurement, the maize seeds are moistened in distilled water for various periods, which are 2h, 4h, 6h and 8h. And then the seeds are dried to the mass they had before moistened. The UWL measurements are made before and after distilled water injects into measured samples. A kind of double exponential function ...

Question: We asked whether a desert ant population and a community of heteromyid rodents select Dithyrea californica seeds in relation to their size, frequency of seed sizes, and absolute density and thus have the capacity to influence natural selection on seed size. Hypothesis: Following the predictions of optimal diet theory, we hypothesized that seed predators will prefer to prey upon larger...