13 SEED TESTING INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2026 ASSOCIATION NEWS Summary of ISTA Special Project 20-2: The development of digital references for the ISTA Universal List of Species Ruojing Wang1 and Deborah J. Lionakis Meyer2 1Project lead, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Saskatoon, Canada; ruojing.wang@inspection.gc.ca 2Project co-lead, Seed Botanist (retired), Plant Pest Diagnostics Center, California Department of Food and Agriculture, USA Seed Identification Retrieving and identifying other seeds are routine diagnostic activities in purity analysis and other seed determination (OSD). Seed identification is the most difficult part of these tests to perform and is usually done by highly specialised and experienced seed analysts based on many years of training and practice. When an unfamiliar seed must be identified the process often requires an extensive search through a seed specimen reference collection and seed taxonomic references, as morphological comparison to such resources is critical to accurate identification. Confidence in morphological identification relies on the availability of suitable reference materials for experienced analysts and those in training, leading to accuracy of testing results. The development of technical references for OSD has long been requested by ISTA members and development of such references is strongly supported by ISTA. ISTA Universal List of Species The ISTA Universal List of Species (UL) provides a basic list of commonly encountered species in OSD and purity analysis. ISTA accredited laboratories are expected, at the minimum, to be able to identify the seeds of taxa on the UL. The objectives of the ISTA UL are: • To state the minimum content that an ISTA accredited laboratory could be expected to have in its seed reference collection. • To provide guidance to the ISTA Proficiency Test programme for the species that are routinely seen in samples. • To indicate whether seeds can usually be identified at the species level. The taxa listed in the UL are frequently present in ISTA Proficiency Test panels for OSD or purity analysis. However, physical specimens to include in a seed reference collection are not always easy to collect from verified whole plant specimens or from reliable sources of seed, especially for a newly accredited seed testing laboratory. Project co-lead Debbie Meyer, retired seed botanist from California Department of Food and Agriculture, USA Sumaia Mahmuda from LAL TEER Seed, Bangladesh Project lead Ruojing Wang (back, left) and team from Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Canada Digital reference for seed testing Project Objectives The ISTA Special Project 20-2 aimed to develop digital seed identification references of the 130 taxa on the UL in a web-based format, thus providing ongoing support or training to ISTA laboratories and seed analysts. The digital data references and scientific nomenclature could be updated more easily compared to paper-based or fixed formats (e.g. PDF files) for the 130 UL taxa.
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