A long-term seed storage area designed to withstand the passage time and the threat of natural or man-made calamities.

More than 1700 gene banks maintain agricultural products collection for safekeeping around the world, however several of them are vulnerable. The crop variety's extinction is as inevitable as the extinction of a dinosaur, an animal, or any other form of life. Challenge like this sparked the concept of  building a seed bank to act as a backup storage facility.

In the 1980s, farmers, scientists, and non-governmental organizations banded together to form MASIPAG, the Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Growth, to counter the loss of rice genetic diversity. They bred 1,288 new MASIPAG rice varieties that are uniquely suited to local soils and climate conditions and collected and preserved over 1,300 conventional rice varieties.

The Sierra Madre Biogeographic Zone (SMBGZ) includes the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park (NSMNP), which is located on the eastern side of Central Luzon(Ramos & Olsson, 2015). 

The National Park Service of the Philippines considers NSMNP to be one of the most significant protected areas in the country because of its populations of endemic species (Ramos & Olsson, 2015).

Seed is the ripened ovule or egg fertilized product of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. It consists of three primary parts which are the embryo, endosperm, and seed coat.

A seed starts to develop an embryo following fertilization and the formation of a zygote.

According to Zhao & Sun (2015), the early male gametophyte, or pollen, germinates and creates a pollen tube, which grows through the pistil and delivers a pair of sperm cells to the female gametophyte. Three antipodal cells, two synergid cells, one egg cell, and one central cell normally make up the female gametophyte, or embryo sac. One sperm cell unites with the egg cell to form a diploid zygote, which grows into an embryo, and the other sperm cell fuses with the central cell to form a triploid primary endosperm cell during fertilization. The elongated zygote divides asymmetrically during embryogenesis, producing a larger basal cell and a smaller apical cell with different developmental fates. The small apical cell matures into the embryo's main body, while the bigger basal cell expands longitudinally and divides transversely to produce a suspensor. The hypophysis, the topmost suspensor cell, eventually becomes a component of the primary root meristem.

Firstly, the mature zygote expands and then divides into two cells via unequal division, with the higher cell forming a suspensor cell at the micropylar end and the lower cell forming an embryonal cell. Suspensor cells remain the same, while embryonal cells will now divide into three divisions: upper basal cell, middle basal cell, and lower embryonal cell or terminal cell. Now the middle cell divides to form a globular-like structure, with the terminal cell at the tip. These globular cells divide to generate radicle layer, hypocotyl cell layer, plumule cell, and finally cotyledon, which is formed by terminal cell. One cotyledon form has suspensor cell, radicle hypocotyl plumule, and one cotyledon, following maturation.

The mature zygote first expands, then divides into two cells via unequal division, with the top cell known as the vesicular cell or primary suspensor cell and the lower cell known as the primary embryonal cell. Now the embryonal cell divides into two cells, while the vesicular cell remains the same, acting for absorption. Many divisions occur in embryonal cells, resulting in suspensor cells (which can be 6-18 celled), yet one cell remains the same. This cell expands and divides to generate four cell stages (quadrant stage), eight cell stages (octant stage), and sixteen cell stages (pro-embryo or glomerular embryo). Now, the pro-embryo is gradually transforming into a heart-shaped embryo with a centrally placed meristem cell that has begun to form. After that, the pro-embryo elongates and matures into a mature form with a plerome in the center, a plumule between two cotyledons, a dermatogen layer on the outside, and a pedicle. Finally, two completely developed cotyledons appear, each with a vesicular cell or haustorial cell on the top side and several suspensor cells. After the root cap, two cotyledons in their center plumule are present, and the tip of this is known as the embryonal node.

The principal embryonic organs, as well as the shoot and root apical meristems, are established through partitioning events along the apical–basal axis, with auxin guiding many of these events. The three embryonic tissue systems are formed along a radial axis that runs parallel to the apical–basal axis (Harada et al., 2010). Addtionally, the organization of cells and tissues along the main axis from root to shoot is known as the apical–basal pattern, and the concentric organization of tissues is determined by the radial pattern.

Allows an intact viable seed to delay the completion of germination so as to overcome unfavorable periods for a seedling. 

It is not the absence of seed germination rather than a characteristic of a seed that will determine conditions for germination.

SCARIFICATION- any altering process to a seed coat making it permeable to water and gas exchange.

STRATIFICATION- simulating natural conditions such as temperature and moisture to break down seed dormancy.

LEACHING, LIGHT AND CHEMICAL TREATMENTS.

Luffa acutangula (patola) was subjected to different types of scarification. One of which is the mechanical scarification where the hilum of the seeds were scratched in a sandpaper.

The first picture is the day 0, and the second picture is after 8 days of germination.

Is a process starting from the hydration of the seed up to the emergence of a radicle from the seed coat.

After germination, food reserves are mobilized from the endosperm (storage organ) that will provide enough energy until a seedling becomes autotropic.

Gibberillins are the primary phytohormones that initiate mobilization of storage materials in seeds.

Tropism is the growth or movement of a plant in response to different environmental stimuli.

PHOTOTROPISM- response to light.

GEOTROPISM- response to gravity.

CHEMOTROPISM, HYDROTROPISM, THIGMOTROPISM. etc.

Growth of plant towards a source of light especially a blue light. The animation below is an example of positive phototropism, which orients the plant's growth towards the direction of a a light source.

Main phytohormone responsible for elongation in phototropism and gravitropism.