Imbibition, the displacement of a nonwetting fluid by wetting fluid, plays central role in diverse energy, environmental, and industrial processes. While this process is typically studied homogeneous porous media with uniform permeabilities, many cases, have multiple parallel strata different permeabilities. How such stratification impacts dynamics imbibition, as well saturation after breaks th...

As a part of an analysis of the nature of chilling injury to seeds, measurements were made of the initial linear rates of water entry into and solute leakage out of cotyledons of soybean at various temperatures. Arrhenius plots were approximately linear for water entry into both living and dead cotyledons, with the slope (and activation energy) for entry into living cells being insignificantly ...

Water absorption is a prerequisite for seed germination. During imbibition, water influx causes the resumption of many physiological and metabolic processes in growing seed. In order to obtain more complete knowledge about the mechanism of seed germination, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was applied to investigate the protein profile changes of rice seed during the first 48 h of imbibition...

The content of [alpha]-tocopherol ([alpha]T) in isolated soybean (Glycine max, var Hood) embryonic axes was measured upon germination. Dry, high-vigor axes contained 1.2 [plus or minus] 0.1, nmol/axis and after an increase during the initial 6 h of imbibition, there was a decline to 1.0 [plus or minus] 0.1 nmol/axis at 24 h of incubation. Incubation in the presence of the redox-cycling agent pa...

Protoplasts were isolated from pea (Pisum sativum L. cv. Alaska) embryonic axes during and after germination to determine whether the loss of desiccation tolerance in the embryos also occurs in the protoplasts. At all times studied, protoplast survival decreased as water content decreased; however, the sensitivity to dehydration was less when the protoplasts were isolated from embryos that were...

This work analyses the applicability of the Lucas–Washburn equation to experimental observations of imbibition into real network structures. The experimental pore structures used in this study are constructed from tablets of two finely ground calcium carbonates, with defined differences in particle size distribution. These are compressed under a range of different applied pressures to achieve a...

Most plant seeds are dispersed in a dry, mature state. If these seeds are non-dormant and the environmental conditions are favourable, they will pass through the complex process of germination. In this review, recent progress made with state-of-the-art techniques including genome-wide gene expression analyses that provided deeper insight into the early phase of seed germination, which includes ...

Vertical orientation of emerging roots typically is the first response of plants to gravity. Although root gravitropism has been studied extensively, no conclusive data on the onset of gravisensing exist. We determined the inception of gravisensitivity in flax (Linum usitatissimum) roots by clinorotating germinating seeds after various periods of static orientation (gravistimulation) of imbibed...