Most preliminary studies on plant toxicity use radish and lettuce seeds as test plants. Inhibitory effect on germination and seedling growth of both is taken as indicator of toxicity in plant. Is it right that radish and lettuce are comparatively far better indicators of plant toxicity so preferred to be used in biological assays? If this is so what could be the reason for their better response in comparison to other crops/plants?
Because they are very sensitive to phytochemicals at low concentrations, easy growth and high rate of germination. Therefore they are commonly used in the bioassays of phytochemicals.
Is there any evidence (published document) for high sensitivity of these two in comparison to others? I found a lot of literature quoting the high sensitivity of these two and thus their usefulness in scientific study..but don't find any article that provides quantitative comparison with other crop seeds and proving the empirical statement based on sound quantitative indices..
In simple words if somebody has article representing high sensitivity to phytochemicals for these two in comparison to other crops, please do share..Thanks in anticipation
I agree radish and lettuce have been selected in many studies because they are quite common worldwide, fast growing, easy to cultivate and sensitive to contaminants. On the other hand, by doing experiment with these species, it will be easy to compare your results with other studies. Additionally, radish is a very small plant and if you work on the upper part of the plant, that will make your experiment easier as it need less space.
Please be noted that, radish and lettuce are sensitive with phytochemicals at very low concentrations, compared with other plants or weeds, you can refer the results from the published paper. They are commonly healthy and easily prepared.
For radish, it is better to keep them in the dark at 1-2 days at 25oC for higher, that helps stimulate its growth well.
In continuation of above discussion, can anybody answer that what factor is responsible for making radish seeds more sensitive to phytochemicals? All seedlings are prone to toxicity and easy to grow in controlled lab conditions but we say that radisg seedling growth inhibition is better indicator for toxicity assessment. Why radish seedlings are more sensitive to phytotoxins than other crop seedlings?
I am curious, 4 years later I still struggle finding evidences of the high sensitivity of lettuce to phytochemical or to environmental pollutant. I mean, there are plenty of articles quoting the fact that lettuce IS highly sensitive, but I cannot find any quantitative study or any quote mentionning WHY this is happening and by what means. Is it just related to lettuce metabolism? Any clarification or reference on the subject would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance
Lettuce and radish seed usage is mostly a function of availability and short time to generate results.
This is akin to use of fruit flies for genetic studies the short generation time give advantage in a model system.
Between radiah and lettuce I would favor radish because it germinates more uniformly and quicker.
For these tests you do not want seeds with dormancy issues because that will affect the uniformity of results.
The seedling assays are quite affected by substrate. For instance higher uniformity can be found on celllulose pad assays but soil can reflect more the real world situation where seeds are confronted with soilborne pathogens.
For discriminating stress environment results the Iowa cold test is hard to beat for the ability of discriminating the seed quality effects under less than ideal conditions.
Something that gives good indication of potential high germination under an ideal germination environment may react very less favorabling under natural stresss environments and ability to do well under the natural stress is very important criteria for results in the field.
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