A Study on 3D Structure of Normal and Infected Tomato Seeds Using Full-Field Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

Anthracnose is a fungal diseases caused by Colletotrichum coccodes pathogen in tomato. In this study, we analyzed and distinguished morphological structural changes of Anthracnose infected tomato seeds from healthy tomato seed which is not reported yet. Full-field Optical Coherence Tomography (FF-OCT) has proven to be an effective non-destructive and an efficient method to distinguish anthracnose infected tomato seeds. A few studies have reported the use of OCT in studying seed morphology. However, 3D imaging of internal tomato seed structure for healthy and Anthracnose infected seeds has not been reported yet. Our results shows that major seed structure changes can be clearly visualized in the Full-field OCT image. We analyzed that healthy seeds have gap between the seed coat and endosperm which was about 28.17 μm whereas in infected seed this gap was not present. Also dryness and time period didn’t affect the internal seed structure and thickness but infection did. 3D structure of infected seed has revealed that permeability of seed coat has also been affected due to infection which plays a vital role protecting a seed. Taken together, these results suggest that Full-Field OCT has a good potential for the detection of fungus infected tomato seed and it could form a suitable alternative to conventional methods.