This manual aims to update the 1985 Procedures for Handling Seed in Genebanks, a standard practical reference in genebanks across the world for many years. The content is similar, and covers the key procedures involved in germplasm acquisition and registration, seed cleaning, seed moisture content determination and drying, seed quality testing, seed packaging and storage, germplasm distribution, and germplasm monitoring and registration. Seed health testing is a welcome addition and new techniques such as testing for inadvertent introduction of transgenes are also introduced. Another useful addition is the annex on international policies and frameworks influencing access to and exchange of germplasm, an area which has seen significant changes since the earlier publication. Suggestions for further reading point the reader towards key seed biology texts and technical handbooks of recent years.
An integral part of the Manual is a CD-ROM-based interactive self-learning module. Divided into three Units and 10 lessons, the module contains essentially the same material as the book, together with a summary page for each lesson, interactive self-learning checks, problem scenarios, and PDFs of several key references. The colour photos included in the lessons provide a useful back-up to the book, although some could be larger.
Users are invited to click on highlighted words in the text to read a pop-up definition. For newly recruited staff, or those working in a gene bank for the first time, it might have been useful to define more of the terms encountered in the text. Genebank, germplasm and accession are defined but seed vigour, desiccation tolerance, longevity and alleles are not.
Given the importance of seed moisture to seed conservation, it is unfortunate that the terminology and definitions used in the sections on seed drying may confuse more than enlighten. The book and the CD-ROM have slightly different definitions of relative humidity. Water vapour pressure is not defined, but seems to be used as a synonym for water potential (which is defined). I was surprised that neither the book, nor the CD-ROM, actually spelt out, in simple terms – e.g. Harrington's Rules – the relative importance of drying and cooling on seed longevity.
The self-learning checks and problem scenarios will encourage reflection and learning. Unfortunately, there is at least one error (in the lesson on seed moisture content determination) in which users selecting the right sequence of answers are told that they are incorrect. This is off-putting and confusing and may cause the reader/user to lose confidence. None of the listed web links on the CD-ROM worked, nor did the links embedded in the text.
Inconsistent advice is given with respect to drying of soybean. The book states that critical seed moisture content for soya is 3·3% and that this should be achieved by two-stage drying in order to avoid physical damage and cracking, whilst the CD-ROM, in the answer to one of the learning checks, suggests that soya should not be dried below 8% moisture content due to risk of over-drying. The manual also propagates the common misconception that oily seeds are shorter lived. In fact, studies show that there is no correlation between seed composition and seed longevity.
Despite these few criticisms, there is undoubtedly a demand, especially from genebank staff in developing countries, for this sort of publication. I reviewed this book whilst in the company of exactly this target audience, and it was well received by all. In an easy-to-use, ring-bound A5 format, the manual should find a place as a quick reference book on the lab bench, rather than tucked away on a bookshelf.
