Seed dormancy prevents seeds from germinating under environmental conditions unfavourable for plant growth and development and constitutes an evolutionary advantage. Dry storage, also known as after-ripening, gradually decreases seed dormancy by mechanisms not well understood. An Arabidopsis thaliana DOF transcription factor gene (DOF6) affecting seed germination has been characterized. The tra...

An investigation was initiated to examine the effects of carbon soot collected from exhaust tube of 15 years old petrol and diesel operated vehicles on gram seed germination and biochemical changes of seedling. In view of the widespread cultivation of gram seed in India and long-term impact of black carbon is the warming of the atmosphere as per the recommendation of IPCC (2007). Black soot wer...

Screening of 10 000 Arabidopsis transgenic lines carrying a gene-trap (GUS) construct has been undertaken to identify markers of seed germination. One of these lines showed GUS activity restricted to the endosperm, at the micropylar end of the germinating seed. The genomic DNA flanking the T-DNA insert was cloned by walking PCR and the insertion was shown to be located 70 bp upstream of a 2285 ...

Changes in the levels of thiamin-binding globulin and thiamin in wheat seeds during maturation and germination were studied. The thiamin-binding activity of the seed proteins increased with seed development after flowering. The thiamin content of the seeds also increased with development. Thiamin-binding activity decreased during seed germination. On the other hand, immunological analysis using...

Strong seed dormancy has been an obstacle for field production of Echinacea species. Previous research on overcoming Echinacea seed dormancy has been extensive and focused on treatment methods, which involve time and expense, and are incompatible with organic production if synthetic chemicals are used. We have attempted to genetically reduce seed dormancy through selection and breeding in Echin...

Factors that determine the effectiveness of primates as seed dispersers include (i) the microsite into which they deposit seed, (ii) secondary removal of seed by other taxa and (iii) the effect of gut passage and/or spitting on subsequent seed germination. This contribution evaluated these factors in the little studied putty-nosed monkey, Cercopithecus nictitans, in a Nigerian montane forest. F...

Seagrasses are important components of global coastal ecosystems, and the eelgrass Zostera marina L. is widely distributed along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in the temperate northern hemisphere, but limited datum related to the contribution of sexual reproduction to population recruitment have been reported. This study aimed to understand eelgrass sexual reproduction and population recruitm...

The present investigation attempted to assess the impact of seed pre-treatments on the germination of Crotalaria persica (Burm. f.) Merr and Tephrosia apollinea (L) Pers. Equally important was our investigation to quantitatively compare different germination parameters used for seed germination studies. The results showed that the final germination was highest for both species under chipping (C...

Carica papaya (papaya) seed germinate readily fresh from the fruit, but desiccation induces a dormant state. Dormancy can be released by exposure of the hydrated seed to a pulse of elevated temperature, typical of that encountered in its tropical habitat. Carica papaya is one of only a few species known to germinate in response to heat shock (HS) and we know little of the mechanisms that contro...

The genetic basis of seed germination and seedling vigor is largely unknown in Brassica species. We performed a study to evaluate the genetic basis of these important traits in a B. rapa doubled haploid population from a cross of a yellow-seeded oil-type yellow sarson and a black-seeded vegetable-type pak choi. We identified 26 QTL regions across all 10 linkage groups for traits related to seed...