Abstract

The objective of the present work was to establish a true cause and effect relationship under controlled ageing and to check genetic changes in surviving and dead seeds. Six different maize genotypes were evaluated through 30 SSR primers. During the investigation, six primers showed four different types of variability viz., Type I, II, III and IV, among live and dead seeds. The results suggested that at least part of the variability could actually be explained to the degradation of DNA under ageing. However, to identify the genes related to germination, more number of SSR primers should be employed so that the whole spectrum of genes covering all the 10 chromosomes can be obtained. Therefore, to identify the genes responsible for germination, expression profiles of genes which are upregulated or downregulated during germination need to be investigated.