Title

Surface Decontamination of Seeds to Produce Axenic Seedlings

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Am. J. Bot.

Keywords

Plant Sciences

Abstract

A variety of sterilizing agents were tested to develop a standard procedure for surface decontaminating seeds to produce axenic seedlings. The use of calcium hypochlorite (0.5% phosphate buffer, pH 6) for 10 min followed by three sterile water rinses was among the most effective agents, and it did not injure some species as did sodium hypochlorite, formaldehyde, ethylene oxide and mercuric chloride. Some species contained internal microbes requiring severe treatments which killed or injured the seedling, while other species were “decontaminated” with a sterile water rinse. The percentage of seeds with internal microbes varied considerably among plant species, seed lot, and the length of seed storage. Thus, with seeds not easily decontaminated, screening of additional seed lots would be more profitable than testing additional decontamination agents. Release of microbes from the seed's interior is associated with germination, and microbial testing must last at least 11 days. Nutrient agar permitted growth, although the seedlings outgrew petri plates too quickly for adequate certification. These seedlings were transferred to nutrient agar in quart jars in which an internal pool of broth was periodically agitated to permit microbial sampling of the leaves while the plant grew.

Journal Title

American Journal of Botany

Volume

66

Issue/Number

6

Publication Date

1-1-1979

Document Type

Article

Language

English

Publisher

Botanical SOC AMER Inc

College

College of Sciences

First Page

692

Last Page

698

WOS Identifier

WOS:A1979HC87400010

ISSN

0002-9122

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