Influence of low doses of ionizing radiation on seeding quality of seeds (review)

This review analyzes various physical methods of influencing seeds by pre-sowing, to increase germination energy by pre-sowing irradiation of seeds, to increase the shelf life of food, as well as in breeding work in order to obtain valuable properties and traits in various crops, to destroy pests and diseases. It has been defined that depending on conditions and radiation dose, the properties of irradiated biological object, ionizing radiation has a stimulating, suppressing, preserving, mutagenic, therapeutic or sterilizing effect. Analysis of literature data shows that the stimulating effect depends on sensitivity of plants to ionizing radiation and radiation dose. Small doses of ionizing radiation stimulate germination, cause early and abundant flowering and improve the productivity of a number of crops. It is emphasized that this is especially important for the agricultural sector of the economy of the Republic of Tajikistan, since in recent years there has been a decrease in cotton yields. It is shown that the IR spectroscopy method can be used to study the mechanism of effect of neutron irradiation on germination process and germination of seeds of industrial crops. (author)