ABSTRACT
Aside from the provision of food and feedstock from one season to the next, seeds are stored as base and active collections, as a means of long-term conservation of valuable genetic resources representing species biodiversity, and to provide planting stock for subsequent seasons. However, their con servation in seed banks or gene banks, or in commercial storage, makes the assumption that seeds are storable in the first place, which in turn is based on the premise that they show orthodox postharvest behavior (Roberts, 1973). By this it is meant that the period for which the seeds may be stored without loss of quality is predictable under defined conditions of storage temperature and seed water (moisture) content, the longevity, within limits, increasing logarithmically with decreasing water content (Ellis and Rob erts, 1980). Orthodox seeds are, or can be, dehydrated to low water con tents, which is a consequence of their having acquired the property of desic cation tolerance relatively early during their preshedding development (e.g., Bewley and Black, 1994; Vertucci and Farrant, 1995). The property of desiccation tolerance and its maintenance in dry orthodox seeds is based on the presence and interplay of a suite of mechanisms and processes ex pressed during development (Pammenter and Berjak, 1999).
