A variety of mechanisms have been proposed to account for the extension of life span in seeds (seed longevity). In this work, we used Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seeds as a model and carried out differential proteomics to investigate this trait, which is of both ecological and agricultural importance. In our system based on a controlled deterioration treatment (CDT), we compared seed sam...

This paper presents a viability assessment method for Pisum sativum L. seeds based on the infrared thermography technique. In this work, different artificial treatments were conducted to prepare seeds samples with different viability. Thermal images and visible images were recorded every five minutes during the standard five day germination test. After the test, the root length of each sample w...

The most vulnerable stage in the life of plants is the seedling. The transition from wild to agricultural land that plants experienced during and after domestication implied a noticeable change in the seedlings' environment. Building on current knowledge of seedling ecology, and on previous studies of cassava, we hypothesise that cultivation should have promoted epigeal germination of seedlings...

Eukaryotic organisms employ a variety of mechanisms during meiosis to assess and ensure the quality of their gametes. Defects or delays in successful meiotic recombination activate conserved mechanisms to delay the meiotic divisions, but many multicellular eukaryotes also induce cell death programs to eliminate gametes deemed to have failed during meiosis. It is generally thought that yeasts la...

Biopedturbation, or animal-caused soil disturbance, may be important for development and maintenance of small-scale heterogeneity in ecosystems with the potential to alter seed mortality and recruitment. However, its role in tropical forests has been largely ignored. This study explored effects of vertebrate biopedturbation on seed (1) microsite heterogeneity, (2) predation and (3) germination ...

The Striga species are obligate root parasitic plants. Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria could enhance Striga suicidal germination. In screen-house studies we quantified the effect of bacterial inoculation with increasing maize plant density on the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica. The design used was a randomized complete block with a factorial design (4 plant density levels, 2 S. hermonth...

ABSTRACT Seed drying has many advantages, but it can cause irreversible damages, compromising the physiological quality of seeds, especially when they present high water contents. The objective this work was to evaluate effect conditions (inside and outside pod) on cowpea seeds cultivar BRS-Tumucumaque before after storage. A completely randomized experimental design with four replications used...