What are some good and bad results on irradiation being used on seeds

Germination, the process by which a plant grows from a seed,

Radiation on Seed Germination

Exposure to radiation has been found to cause a large range of effects on seeds. In a study done by Marcu et al. on the effects of radiation on seeds, it was found that radiation not only impacts the germination potential and actual qualities of the germinated seedlings (such as root and shoot lengths), where germination potential is the percentage of seeds that that germinated overall and the time of germination compared to when the seed was planted. Furthermore, seeds were also found to have decreased photosynthetic pigment content when they were irradiated compared to those that were not irradiated. Thus, it is clear that radiation not only impacts the quantity of seedlings, but also the quality of them.

From the Marcu et al. research, it is also clear that plants and seeds are much more radiation tolerant than are other living beings. For example, the smallest dose mentioned in the paper is more than 20 times what would be required to kill a vertebrate animal. Even at radiation levels 200 times the dose required to kill a person, some seeds still germinated. Seeds are clearly more hearty than other animals, and likely even full grown plants.

While research has shown clearly that radiation has a large impact on both the quantity and quality of seedlings, it has also been shown that radiation impacts various seed varieties differently. There has been research dedicated to determining how to increase the shelf-life of various plants and sprouts through the use of radiation. Each type of produce seed and sprout has a different level of approved radiation, with the ultimate goal being the safety of the consumer.

Explanation:

The effects of gamma radiation are investigated by studying plant germination, growth and development, and biochemical characteristics of maize. Maize dry seeds are exposed to a gamma source at doses ranging from 0.1 to 1 kGy. Our results show that the germination potential, expressed through the final germination percentage and the germination index, as well as the physiological parameters of maize seedlings (root and shoot lengths) decreased by increasing the irradiation dose. Moreover, plants derived from seeds exposed at higher doses did not survive more than 10 days. Biochemical differences based on photosynthetic pigment (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids) content revealed an inversely proportional relationship to doses of exposure. Furthermore, the concentration of chlorophyll a was higher than chlorophyll b in both irradiated and non-irradiated seedlings. Electron spin resonance spectroscopy used to evaluate the amount of free radicals induced by gamma ray treatment demonstrates that the relative concentration of radiation-induced free radicals depends linearly on the absorbed