Correlation Between Superoxide Content and Radicle Length During Seed Germination in Different Types of Indian Mustard

Abstract

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are natural products of metabolism. They originate from either the incomplete or partial reduction of oxygen, which ultimately leads to the formation of superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide. The involvement of superoxide anion has been shown by many workers to regulate cell proliferation and differentiation during growth of radicals. The experiment was conducted to study the changes in content of superoxide anion and explore the possible role of superoxide anion in increasing radicle length during the germination which could substantiate the vigour differences in various Indian mustard genotypes. The results showed that the superoxide anion was positively correlated with radicle length which in turn was positively correlated with seed vigour index-I. The single zero and conventional genotypes of Indian mustard were having higher content of superoxide anion during 36 hours of germination when radicle length was more than 2 mm. In case of double zero type of Indian mustard both radicle length and superoxide content was significantly lower. Thus, the lower content of superoxide could be considered as a possible reason for insignificant increase in radicle length in double zero type of Indian mustard which further may be the cause for their lower seed vigour index-I than the conventional and double zero genotypes of Indian mustard.