Pioneer plants are adapted to grow in unpredictable environments. These plants have evolved several traits related to seed morphology and germination to cope with this unpredictability. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of plant identity and maternal environment on seed mass and germination of Sinapis arvensis. This study was undertaken with S. arvensis plants grown in fo...

Annual Sainfoin (Onobrychis crista-galli (L.) Lam.) is widely adapted to moderate and cold regions of Iran and naturally grows in pasture and rangelands used for forage in these areas. In order to study the effects of priming on seed germination and seedling growth in O. crista-galli, two factorial experiments were conducted based on a randomized complete design with three replications under la...

Seeds consist of encapsulated plant embryos in a highly resistant and desiccated state. Seeds enhance plant fitness by allowing plants to withhold their growth until the appearance of appropriate environmental conditions. Thereupon, seeds germinate, allowing the resumption of the plant’s life cycle. However, protection and propagation is not expected per se to confer fitness without germination...

In a series of experiments, seeds from a temperate seagrass species, Zostera nigricaulis collected in Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia were exposed to a range of salinities (20 PSU pulse/no pulse, 25 PSU, 30 PSU, 35 PSU), temperatures (13 °C, 17 °C, 22 °C), burial depths (0 cm, 1 cm, 2 cm) and site specific sediment characteristics (fine, medium, coarse) to quantify their impacts on germin...

Seed germination is antagonistically controlled by the phytohormones gibberellic acid (GA) and abscisic acid (ABA). GA promotes seed germination by enhancing the proteasome-mediated destruction of RGL2 (for RGA-LIKE2), a key DELLA factor repressing germination. By contrast, ABA blocks germination by inducing ABI5 (for ABA-INSENSITIVE5), a basic domain/leucine zipper transcription factor repress...

We explore the roles of gibberellin (GA) signaling genes SLEEPY1 (SLY1) and RGA-LIKE2 (RGL2) in regulation of seed germination in Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant in which the hormone GA is required for seed germination. Seed germination failure in the GA biosynthesis mutant ga1-3 is rescued by GA and by mutations in the DELLA gene RGL2, suggesting that RGL2 represses seed germination. RGL2 protei...

Seed germination is the most important transitional event between early stages in the life cycle of spermatophytes and understanding it is crucial to understand plant adaptation and evolution. However, so far seed germination of phylogenetically closely related species has been poorly investigated. To test the hypothises that phylogenetically related plant species have similar seed ecophysiolog...

This study was carried out in the biotechnology laboratory of Agricultural Faculty of Ondokuz May s University. The objective of this study was to establish the effects of chilling period and chilling temperature on germination in linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.). Seeds were subjected to six different heat temperatures (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 C) for 24, 48, 72, 96, and 120 hours. Germination test...

We tested whether compounds in ripe Solanum americanum fruits affect gut retention time of S. americanum seeds in Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum). Glycoalkaloids were of special interest because they commonly occur in ripe Solanum fruits and are associated with diarrhea in humans. Also, we determined the influence of gut retention time and the presence/absence of two glycoalkaloids, a-sola...

The changes in crude protein, free amino acids, amino acid composition, protein solubility, protein fractionation and protein digestibility after germination of sorghum were investigated. Sorghum varieties (Dorado, Shandaweel-6, Giza-15) were soaked for 20 h followed by germination for 72 h; the results revealed that crude protein and free amino acids in raw sorghum varieties ranged from 10.62 ...