MONITORING OF VIABILITY OF SOME MAIZE ACCESSIONS STORED IN ALBANIAN GENEBANK

Seeds are the principal means of conservation, regeneration and distribution of most field plants. They serve as the delivery system for the transfer of genetic materials from one generation to the next. There are more than 650 accessions of maize (Zea mays L.) stored as base collection in Albanian Gene Bank. Using standard of germplasm monitoring, we realized the seed viability testing of some maize accessions stored in genebank before 12 years. Ten genotypes were taken randomly from a total of 643 maize accessions. The 400 seeds, replicated four times, were tested for energy and germination capacity. ANOVA analysis shows the presence of significant differences between maize genotypes for germination capacity (Ffactic 23.2319** > Fcrit. 2.2501). In all samples (excepted one) the germination capacity was maintanied higher than 85 %. There were significant differences for the range of the germination capacity lost during 12 years. The lost values were less to 5% in 5 genotypes, less to 10% in 2 genotypes, and 11% in 2 other genotypes. In total germination capacity lost values range from ? 1% to 24 %. The results of this study show that the maize genotypes in general were conserved in good conditions according to standard of the genebank. At the same time the presence of one sample with germination capacity (74%) show that round 9 percent of maize accessions can be under the 85% of germination level. Therefore, for the sure storage of the maize collection we recommends the next test viability.