| Abstract: | As part of a search for biochemical indicators of seed withgood survival characteristics during storage, polyamine (PA)levels were measured in embryos for Zea mays seeds. PA levelswere determined in individual embryos of Mean Generation Analysis(MGA) of crosses between lines which show good (C2) and poor(C6) storage characteristics. A correlation was found betweenhigher PA contents (putrescine and spermidine) and superiorsurvival characteristics within the populations that were analysedby MGA. Titres of putrescine (PUT) and spermidine (SPD) showedthat three-quarters of the F2 resembled the C2 parent and aquarter resembled the C6 parent. Furthermore, the backcrossC6F1 showed that half of the embryos had PUT levels above theparental C6 line. A maternal inheritance effect was not observed.Neither spermine nor cadaverine content was correlated withthe survival inheritance pattern. Given the survival kineticsobtained, it is suggested that both the PA titres and the seedsurvival characteristics are determined by nuclear dominantfactors. Key words: Polyamines, Zea mays, seeds |
