Tag: Germination

An important phase in a plant’s life cycle is transforming from embryo to seedling, when it transitions from a protected space inside the seed to a vulnerable seedling. The capacity of the seedling to tolerate its surroundings determines its survival and eventual reproductive success. In addition to…

If you've ever conducted a germination experiment, you've probably asked yourself: what causes seeds to germinate at different times? The most obvious answer would be to point to genetic differences, but this phenomenon also occurs in genetically identical seeds. In this exciting paper, Sharma and Majee…

Huang et al. demonstrate a novel role–and the underlying mechanism–for FREE1 in regulating LD turnover. Plant Cell. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac195 Background: Lipid droplets (LDs) are major reservoirs providing energy and lipids for seedling establishment. In vascular  plants, the peroxisome-localized…

Niehaus et al. explore the nucleotide metabolome of germinating seeds By Markus Niehaus1, Henryk Straube1 and Marco Herde1 1Leibniz Universität Hannover, Department of Molecular Nutrition and Biochemistry of Plants Background: All living organisms, including plants, possess DNA and rely on…

Barley seeds are anoxic, and during germination pathways are induced to allow energy to be obtained without oxygen. Phytoglobins (Pgb) are hypoxia-induced proteins that are involved in energy metabolism during germination through the Pgb-NO cycle, an alternative pathway to fermentation. In the…

In 1991, Jon E. Keely wrote the first review about the role of fire as a dormancy-breaking cue in California's Mediterranean ecosystems. In this review, almost 30 years after Keely's work, Pausas and Lamont provide us with an updated and worldwide vision of the subject. Four dormancy syndromes and their…

The seed germination niche is the set of environmental conditions in which a seed can germinate. This collection of requirements is expected to be tuned to the climate each species encounters in its natural habitat, but this hypothesis remains to be formally tested. Here, Carta and colleagues make use…

Abscisic acid (ABA) is a phytohormone that plays a crucial role in the inhibition of seed germination, and the transcription factor ABI5 is the final and common downstream factor that represses germination. Many proteins are known to inhibit ABI5, such as the mediator complex subunit MED25 or other transcription…