BACKGROUND AND AIMS Seed dormancy varies within species in response to climate, both in the long term (through ecotypes or clines) and in the short term (through the influence of the seed maturation environment). Disentangling both processes is crucial to understand plant adaptation to environmental changes. In this study, the local patterns of seed dormancy were investigated in a narrow endemi...

Tibetan semi-wild wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp. tibetanum Shao) is one of the Chinese endemic hexaploid wheat genetic resources, distributed only in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau of China. It has special characters, such as a hulled glume and spike disarticulation. However, seed dormancy, another important character for wheat resistance to pre-harvest sprouting, was rarely reported. Seed dormancy ...

Freshly matured seeds exhibit primary dormancy, which prevents germination until environmental conditions are favorable. The establishment of dormancy occurs during seed development and involves both genetic and environmental factors that impact on the ratio of two antagonistic phytohormones: abscisic acid (ABA), which promotes dormancy, and gibberellic acid, which promotes germination. Althoug...

Postma, F. M. 2016. Selection during Early Life Stages and Local Adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1425. 51 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9687-6. Organisms are often adapted to their local environment, but the role of early life stages in adaptive differentiation ...

Seed dormancy and its impact on the soil seed bank for wild Lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) populations were studied in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Five populations were selected in contrasted environments. In all cases, distribution of seeds in the soil was limited to 3 cm depth. No innate dormancy was observed but combination of hard seed coat and hilum opening controlled by environmental...

Arabidopsis accessions differ largely in their seed dormancy behavior. To understand the genetic basis of this intraspecific variation we analyzed two accessions: the laboratory strain Landsberg erecta (Ler) with low dormancy and the strong-dormancy accession Cape Verde Islands (Cvi). We used a quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping approach to identify loci affecting the after-ripening requirem...

Local adaptation provides an opportunity to study the genetic basis of adaptation and investigate the allelic architecture of adaptive genes. We study delay of germination 1 (DOG1), a gene controlling natural variation in seed dormancy in Arabidopsis thaliana and investigate evolution of dormancy in 41 populations distributed in four regions separated by natural barriers. Using F(ST) and Q(ST) ...

should provide new insight into seed dormancy and resistance to preharvest sprouting. Seed dormancy contributes to the adaptability of plants in nature Rice germplasm (Oryza spp.) varies in degree of seed and is of considerable importance in agriculture. The weedy rice dormancy (Roberts, 1961a; Wu, 1978; Oka, 1988, p. 87– (Oryza sativa L.) strains LD, SS18-2, and TKN12-2 and cultivar ‘N22’ 123;...

Dormancy is a bet-hedging strategy that allows organisms to persist through conditions that are suboptimal for growth and reproduction by entering a reversible state of reduced metabolic activity. Dormancy allows a population to maintain a reservoir of genetic and phenotypic diversity (i.e., a seed bank) that can contribute to the long-term survival of a population. This strategy can be potenti...

Pollinators in general and monarch butterflies in particular are in decline due to habitat loss. Efforts to restore habitats for insects that rely on specific plant groups as larvae or adults depend on the ability of practitioners to grow and produce these plants. Monarch larvae feed exclusively on milkweed species, primarily in the genus Asclepias, making propagation and restoration of these p...