Abstract
Water in seeds plays an important role not only in physiological but also in chemical processes. Especially, germination for soybean seed was inhibited by rapid water uptake and the role of water mobilization is very important for soybean germination. One of the best and most precise methods of analyzing water conditions in biological tissues is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Most seeds treated by imbibition through the hilum germinated, whereas seeds treated through the seed coat and soaking hardly germinated. Water content of radicle treated by imbibition through the hilum remarkably increased, and prolongation of NMR relaxation time (T_2) indicated appearance of free water. On the other hand, water content and T_2 in cotyledons did not indicate significant difference in all treatments. From these results, it was suggested that T_2 of the radicle and cotyledon of soybean seeds strongly depended on characteristics of water status and thus reflected the difference of metabolic activity during seed germination.
