Association between seed physical characteristics, germination and seedling growth using canonical correlation analysis

The main objective of this study was using of canonical correlation analysis (CCA) to find relations between 15 different variables of seed emergence and seedling growth related characteristics of seven important crop that were classified in three groups. The studied groups of variables were included physical characteristics (seed weight, seed length, seed density, water absorption and water content), seed germination characteristics (germination percentage, germination rate, uniformity of germination, wet and dry weight of petridish grown seedling) and seed emergence characteristics (emergence percentage, emergence rate, uniformity of emergence, wet and dry weight of field grown seedlings) and crops were included of wheat, barley, soybean, cotton, rapeseed, sunflower and safflower. The CCA revealed two considerable associations between physical characteristics and seed and seedling characteristics grown in petridish. The first pair of canonical variables had a correlation coefficient of 0.99. The physical and growth related characteristics of seedlings grown in petridish most consistently correlated with the first pair of canonical variables respectively were seed density, water absorption, water content, germination percentage, wet and dry weight of petridish grown seedlings. The second pair of canonical variables between physical characteristics and seed and seedling characteristics grown in petridish had a correlation coefficient of 0.73. The CCA indicated that there are three important pairs of canonical variables between physical characteristics and seed and seedling characteristics grown in field with correlations of 0.92, 0.86 and 0.8, respectively. Also there was one considerable pair of canonical variables between seed and seedling characteristics grown in field and grown in petridish with correlation of 0.78. Careful evaluation of distribution of each measured variables in the obtained canonical variables revealed that there was considerable relationship between seedling weight and germination with water content or absorption of seeds; seed size with seedling weight; and biomass production with growth in petridish. Finally, the results showed that CCA could be use for evaluation of association between seed physical characteristics, germination and seedling growth.