Seed Testing Innovation

Craig Nelson Vice President, Eurofins BioDiagnostics Inc.

https://www.eurofinsus.com/biodiagnostics/

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I feel fortunate to be working in the seed industry during a time of great innovation.??Seed production technologies and plant breeding capabilities have advanced quickly over the past 30 years. These advancements have got me thinking about how seed testing and quality assurance methods have changed. We have certainly seen advancements in seed testing, specifically in the areas of molecular tests that can detect both unwanted transgenic events within a conventional seed lot as well as confirmation of genetic alterations intended to be present within a traited seed lot.?

But what about the basic information that every grower needs from their seed supplier: how will my seed grow in the field? Will the seed germinate and emerge from the soil in a uniform and predictable manner? Traditionally, testing for this information has been conducted using standard warm germination methods and vigor tests such as a cold, or accelerated aging tests. These assessments are the backbone of most seed quality assurance programs. They are indispensable and required to assure a seed lot will meet grower’s expectations.

While a standard warm germination test is required by law to accurately represent the potential of each lot to germinate under ideal conditions, there are drawbacks to these tests. They are labor-intensive processes that require a planting media, sufficient moisture, heat and sometimes light, but mostly they take time. In our hyper-time sensitive world, this can be a drawback when the need to immediately receive quality information is ever advancing.?

For those of us within the seed testing community, this is a good time to think about innovation regarding this challenge. Can we harness various technologies that are available in 2022 that will allow us to make immediate estimates of a seed lot’s germination in a nondestructive manner that tightly correlates with actual warm germination testing results? Researchers have been conducting studies applying hyperspectral imaging to seed viability and vigor detection with a significant measure of success. The challenge is to use the advancement of this research and convert it into a high throughput application that will allow seed testing labs to implement these advancements in a QA testing environment.

Incorporating new technology into seed testing would be a worthy endeavor. We need to embrace novel technologies to quickly and accurately assess seed quality and provide the crucial data seed producers and industry professionals need to make go/no-go decisions early in the processing cycle on the marketability of a seed lot. After a seed lot has been selected, conditioned and graded, there will be time to run the final tests legally required to label and market seed.

?Originally posted on www.seedworld.com