Maturity is not only critical for vigour and other seed quality characteristics but also impacts the subsequent plant performance. If these impacts on the subsequent plant are long lasting, the potential to produce vigorous, mature seed may also be affected. This scenario lends itself to the concept of seed maturity memory (SMM) – an understanding of how seed maturity may impact subsequent generations of plants and the vigour of the seeds with different maturity they produce. This study aimed to assess the existence and perpetuation of SMM in peanut, with an emphasis on early seedling vigour. Field physiological measurements and bioassay assessments were carried out on the second generation (G2) and third generation (G3) of peanut seeds with distinct parental maturity backgrounds. Our results suggested maintaining mature seed in both prior and offspring generations helped maintain high seed vigour in subsequent generations. The SMM effects varied between cultivars, with TUFRunner™ ‘727’ exhibiting SMM, whereas FloRun™ ‘107’ did not show SMM in the effects from first generation (G1) to G2 maturities. Overall, a seed resulting from parental plants established from immature seed somewhere in their pedigree was less vigorous than that maintained mature seeds in their pedigree. However, patterns of possible SMM were not always consistent, which could be partially attributed to differing environmental conditions each generation of seed experienced during development. These results highlight the importance of maintaining mature seeds in agricultural production and bring up the issue of ensuring seed maturity consistency during stress memory research assessing vigour characteristics.

中文翻译：

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生产环境中多代种子成熟度对幼苗活力的影响

成熟度不仅对活力和其他种子质量特征至关重要，而且还会影响随后的植物性能。如果这些对后续植物的影响持续很长时间，则产生活力、成熟种子的潜力也可能受到影响。这种情况适用于种子成熟度记忆 (SMM) 的概念——了解种子成熟度如何影响植物的后代及其产生的不同成熟度的种子的活力。本研究旨在评估花生中 SMM 的存在和延续，重点是早期幼苗活力。对具有不同亲本成熟背景的第二代 (G2) 和第三代 (G3) 花生种子进行田间生理测量和生物测定评估。我们的结果表明，在前几代和后代中保持成熟的种子有助于在后代中保持高种子活力。SMM 效应因品种而异，TUFRunner™ '727' 表现出 SMM，而 FloRun™ '107' 在从第一代 (G1) 到 G2 成熟度的影响中没有表现出 SMM。总体而言，从其谱系中某处的未成熟种子建立的亲本植物产生的种子不如其谱系中保持成熟种子的活力。然而，可能的 SMM 模式并不总是一致的，这可能部分归因于每一代种子在发育过程中经历的不同环境条件。