Seasonal periodicity of seed germination and its relationship to seasonal changes in temperature and soil moisture have been well studied in seeds of species with physiological dormancy. However, relatively little information is available on the role of these environmental factors in controlling germination of seeds with physical dormancy (PY). Our primary aim was to determine if seeds of the c...

The Gram-positive spore-forming anaerobe Clostridium sporogenes is a significant cause of food spoilage, and it is also used as a surrogate for C. botulinum spores for testing the efficacy of commercial sterilization. C. sporogenes spores have also been proposed as a vector to deliver drugs to tumor cells for cancer treatments. Such an application of C. sporogenes spores requires their germinat...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In wetland plant communities, species-specific responses to pulses of white light and to red : far-red light ratios can vary widely and influence plant emergence from the seed bank. Carex species are the characteristic plants of sedge meadows of natural prairie wetlands in mid-continental USA but are not returning to restored wetlands. Little is known about how light affects...

Polarized cell elongation is triggered by small molecule cues during development of diverse organisms. During plant reproduction, pollen interactions with the stigma result in the polar outgrowth of a pollen tube, which delivers sperm cells to the female gametophyte to effect double fertilization. In many plants, pistils stimulate pollen germination. However, in Arabidopsis, the effect of pisti...

Spores of a Bacillus subtilis strain with a gerD deletion mutation (Delta gerD) responded much slower than wild-type spores to nutrient germinants, although they did ultimately germinate, outgrow, and form colonies. Spores lacking GerD and nutrient germinant receptors also germinated slowly with nutrients, as did Delta gerD spores in which nutrient receptors were overexpressed. The germination ...

Understanding germination requirements of native species is an important component of restoration in south Puget Lowland prairies (Washington, USA). We conducted an experiment to determine the effects of pre-germination treatment and germination temperature conditions on the proportional germination of three species of Lupinus. For one species, Lupinus lepidus, germination was highest following...

Heterotrimeric G protein signaling is essential for normal hyphal growth in the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa. We have previously demonstrated that the non-receptor guanine nucleotide exchange factor RIC8 acts upstream of the Gα proteins GNA-1 and GNA-3 to regulate hyphal extension. Here we demonstrate that regulation of hyphal extension results at least in part, from an important role i...

The germination of Ferula ovina seeds faces certain problems. The present research was designed to study the promotion of the germination of Ferula ovina seeds by moist-chilling and GA3 applications. The results showed that Ferula ovina seeds display an endogenous dormancy that can be released by moist-chilling treatment for a certain period. In this respect, the best treatment was moist-chilli...

Seeds of beans, lentils and peas were germinated for 2, 4 and 6 days, either under continuous light or continuous dark, and the free amino acids analysed by HPLC. The effects of germination on the free protein amino acids (FPA) and non-protein amino acids (FNPA) depended on the type of legumes and on the processing conditions. After germination of beans, histidine, glutamate, glycine, arginine,...

Both glucose and ABA play crucial roles in the regulation of seed germination and post-germination development. In Arabidopsis thaliana, up-regulation of ABA biosynthesis is suggested as one of the possible mechanisms mediating the glucose-induced delay in seed germination. Since the endogenous ABA level is controlled by the equilibrium between ABA biosynthesis and catabolism, we investigated h...