In the gene bank storage
validation trial,
there were no significant differences in the germination of the fresh (2013)
and the stored (2011) seed lots i.e. no significant physiological changes during the 2-year storage period at the operating gene bank conditions.
This is expected for practical gene bank storage.
Therefore, data of seed ageing beyond 2 years in the gene bank is required to capture seed germination down to the approximately 42% benchmark when tomato seeds are expected to be losing genetic integrity as shown in Table 5.
The germination of seeds after two years of storage was above 55% (above 42%) (Fig. 2),
and comparative genetic profiles of SSR primer SGN-M15617 for stored seed lots and fresh seed lots were similar (Fig. 3),
validating the results of the artificial ageing trial.