Quinoa seed (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) has obtained great interest in recent years due to its high nutritional value and its content of natural antioxidants and other phytochemicals with positive biological activity in humans. Their ability as health promoters depends strictly on the processing conditions to which the seeds are submitted. In this work, quinoa seeds were subjected to germinatio...

To test the germination capacity and its temperature dependence in Mediterranean plants, sixteen species representative of a diversity of habitats of the Balearic Islands were selected. The percentage of germination, the half-response time and the dormancy period of these species were studied at three alternating temperatures: 5-15 C, 10-20 C and 15-25 C. Large differences were found among spec...

Seed’s dormancy is considered as one of the effective factors in seeds germination and consequently in the growth of seeds of many plant species. Shortening the dormancy period and enhancing the germination percentage in fruit types could be a valuable strategy for the seed researchers and plant nurseries. In this research the seeds of mature fruits of different almond cultivars including late-...

Abscisic acid (ABA) inhibits seed germination and the regulation of ABA biosynthesis has a role in maintenance of seed dormancy. The key rate-limiting step in ABA biosynthesis is catalyzed by 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED). Two hydroxamic acid inhibitors of carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase (CCD), D4 and D7, previously found to inhibit CCD and NCED in vitro, are shown to have the novel ...

In animal farming, anthelmintics are regularly applied to control gastrointestinal nematodes. There is plenty of evidence that also non-target organisms, such as dung beetles, are negatively affected by residues of anthelmintics in faeces of domestic ungulates. By contrast, knowledge about possible effects on wild plants is scarce. To bridge this gap of knowledge, we tested for effects of the c...

The regeneration of plant communities from seed depends, to a large extent, on the capacity of the seed remaining viable in the soil. The viability and germination of artificially buried Psychotria vellosiana seeds in cerrado soil were studied, with the purpose of discovering some physio-ecological aspects of dispersed seeds and evaluating their potential to constitute a soil seed bank. Seed sa...

the effect of electromagnetic field was examined on zinnia (zinnia elegans) seeds to enhance seed germination and early growth. the seeds were exposed to four magnetic strengths of 15, 100, 400 and 800 mt in four durations of 30, 60, 120 and 240 min. the experiments were carried out in two forms of laboratory germination and soil emergence. results showed that magnetic field application enhance...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Salix nigra seeds are desiccation-tolerant, as are orthodox seeds, although in contrast to other orthodox seeds they lose viability in a few weeks at room temperature. They also differ in that the chloroplasts of the embryo tissues conserve their chlorophyll and endomembranes. The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of chlorophyll in seed deterioration. METHODS S...

To test the inferences of spotted microarray technology against a biochemically well-studied process, we performed transcriptional profiling of conidial germination in the filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa. We first constructed a 70 base oligomer microarray that assays 3366 predicted genes. To estimate the relative gene expression levels and changes in gene expression during conidial germin...

Decoated pepper (Capsicum annuum L. cv Early Calwonder) seeds germinated earlier at 25 degrees C, but not at 15 degrees C, compared to coated seeds. The seed coat did not appear to impose a mechanical restriction on pepper seed germination. Scarification of the endosperm material directly in front of the radicle reduced the time to germination at both 15 degrees C and 25 degrees C.The amount of...