Seed science expert Guo Huaren's lifetime research monograph is officially released

Surpassing yesterday's "Seed Science" with today's

In fact, seed science is the specialized field devoted to studying seeds, yet from forest plants, wild weeds and human crops, to functions such as seed structure, germination, dormancy and longevity, as well as applied aspects such as breeding, preservation and mass production, all are areas researchers can delve into, making it a very broad field indeed.

"The reason seed science came into being is that at the end of the 19th century the quality of European seed merchants' products was uneven, so various countries began to promote quality inspection and certification methods," and thus a science devoted to studying seeds was born.

After the world wars, seed scientists mostly studied the chemical composition, proteins, structure, photosynthesis and hormones of seeds, until in the 1970s the American scholar Kozlowski published the book "Seed Science," gathering the great achievements of research from all sides at the time, and it can be called a "classic" that later researchers must read.

"So the title of my book is also meant to echo that book," Kuo Hua-jen said. During his student days, Kozlowski's edition of "Seed Science" was also read over and over many times; but times have changed, and seed science has advanced differently because molecular breeding techniques for studying genes have matured, and in addition Chinese-language literature has always been lacking, so there was a need to write a book.

The maturity of the field most closely tied to people has made seed science an obscure science

Although seed science is closely tied to human farming and food, it remains a "cold science." Kuo Hua-jen said that because the fields most closely tied to people, such as germination, dormancy, breeding and application, have already been extensively studied, breakthroughs can only be possible in other fields, such as wild plants.

For example, everyone knows seeds can be dispersed by animals, wind and water, but some plants have evolved special structures that let seeds be ejected very far, the most famous being Impatiens and Oxalis pes-caprae (yellow woodsorrel).

For instance, there is a cucurbit plant called the "squirting cucumber," whose fruit secretes a large amount of mucus when it ripens; when the rind can no longer withstand the pressure and bursts, the mucus carrying the seeds can be shot 40 to 50 meters away, dispersing the seeds. And the mechanisms by which the mucus forms, its structure and composition, or whether the seeds "dormant," that is, are unable to germinate, are all directions for follow-up research in seed science.

Dormancy is in fact a common topic of discussion in seed science: "My doctoral dissertation was on rice dormancy." Kuo Hua-jen said that at first he wanted to solve how rice enters dormancy, and why it does so; and the research results showed that when the rice husk exhausts the oxygen in the surrounding environment, the seed inside the husk (the grain of rice) cannot grow.

And the reason rice evolved such a trait is mainly to avoid offspring growing at the same time: "Then a single typhoon or disaster would kill them all." Growing in batches also gives offspring a chance to emerge in a more suitable environment.

However, in seed science this "precautionary theory" is not the only correct answer; some scholars believe it is hormones controlling seed dormancy and germination, but how do hormones control it? By what means? There is still no definitive conclusion. Theories like this, where "no one can fully convince anyone else," are a common issue for seed science researchers, and only through scholars' continuous research can there someday be an answer.

Professor at National Chiayi University: "Ready to serve as a textbook"

"Even now when I teach, I still use Professor Kuo's notes," said Hou Chin-jih, now an associate professor in the Department of Agronomy at National Chiayi University, who was once Kuo Hua-jen's student and also plans to adopt it as a textbook for his students.

He believes that although seed science is currently an elective for students, "without seeds there are no crops," so seed science remains a very important discipline; and at present, for example, Britain plants wildflowers and wild grasses as ornamental plants because they are vigorous and locally adaptable, and this field in fact falls under "seed ecology," so it is not too obscure.

(This article was funded by a Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation grant for personnel expenses, but the foundation does not interfere at all with news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring news independence.)