EFFECT OF CULTURE VESSELS ON THE BIOMASS PRODUCTION AND TOTAL ANTIOXIDANT CAPACITY IN PEA SEEDLINGS GERMINATED UNDER PAM-SYSTEM

We aimed to determine how biological production changes during germination if different techniques are applied for closing the vessels and different types of culture vessels are used. The pea germ test system was used in the experiment. Pea sensitively reacts to ethylene and carbon-dioxide during germination. Pea seeds (cv. Debreceni sötétzöld, Pisum sativum L. sensu lato) and the photoautotrophic germination system, as a simple and easily reproducable model system were used in the experiment. The sterilized pea seeds were grown in photoautotrophic culture on a 0.5 Murashige-Skoog medium (1962) for 14 days. For half of the experiments 100 ml Erlenmeyer flasks were used as culture vessels covered in five different ways. There were flasks left uncovered, covered with parafilm or PVC-foil or PVC-foil and aluminium foil or with PVC-foil and aluminium foil with a hole in the centre. There were five replications for each method. The quantity of medium and the number of pea seeds were the same in each culture vessel. In the other half of the experiments, 16 different types of culture vessels were used, the number of pea seeds per vessel was proportional to the volume of the vessel. The mass and the length of the root, seed and shoot were measured on 20 plants after 14 days. For measuring the antioxidant capacity, the samples were freeze-dryed by a lyophilizer (Alpha 1-4 LSC Christ, Germany), ground and stored at -18°C. The amount of water- and lipid-soluble antioxidants of pea were measured by a chemiluminometer (Photochem, Analytik Jena AG, Germany) in order to determine how the produced gases influence the amount of antioxidants.