integrity in terms of germination capacity was 41.68%,
hence a germinability benchmark of w42% was derived
for genetic changes in tomato seeds.
Physiological and DNA data from tomato seeds of accessions stored in gene bank at 2±1C for
2 years and freshly harvested seed lots validated the results of artificial ageing.
In future studies, it would be interesting to investigate field phenotypic expressions of the DNA alterations during controlled artificial ageing trials.