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Hormonal and temperature regulation of seed dormancy and germination in Leymus chinensis

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Abstract

Fluctuating temperature plays a critical role in determining the timing of seed germination in many plant species. However, the physiological and biochemical mechanisms underlying such a response have been paid little attention. The present study investigated the effect of plant growth regulators and cold stratification in regulating Leymus chinensis seed germination and dormancy response to temperature. Results showed that seed germination was less than 2 % at all constant temperatures while fluctuating temperature significantly increased germination percentage. The highest germination was 71 % at 20/30 °C. Removal of the embryo enclosing material of L. chinensis seed germinated to 74 %, and replaced the requirement for fluctuating temperature to germinate, by increasing embryo growth potential. Applications of GA4+7 significantly increased seed germination at constant temperature. Also, inhibition of GA biosynthesis significantly decreased seed germination at fluctuating temperatures depending upon paclobutrazol concentration. This implied GA was necessary for non-dormant seed germination and played an important role in regulating seed germination response to temperature. Inhibition of ABA biosynthesis during imbibition completely released seed dormancy at 20/30 °C, but showed no effect on seed germination at constant temperature, suggesting ABA biosynthesis was important for seed dormancy maintenance but may not involve in seed germination response to temperature. Cold stratification with water or GA3 induced seed into secondary dormancy, but this effect was reversed by exogenous FL, suggesting ABA biosynthesis during cold stratification was involved in secondary dormancy. Also, cold stratification with FL entirely replaced the requirement of fluctuating temperature for germination with seeds having 73 % germination at constant temperature. This appears to be attributed to inhibition of ABA biosynthesis and an increase of GA biosynthesis during cold stratification, leading to an increased embryo growth potential. We suggest that fluctuating temperature promotes seed germination by increasing embryo growth potential, mainly attributed to GA biosynthesis during imbibitions. ABA is important for seed dormancy maintenance and induction but showed less effect on non-dormant seed germination response to temperature.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

GA:

Gibberellin

FL:

Fluridone

PA:

Paclobutrazol

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Jason Trethewey in Agresearch, Lincoln Research Centre of New Zealand for his revision of the manuscript and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program (973 program) of China (2007CB108904) and the Natural Science Foundation for the Youth of China (31001030).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, P.O.Box 61, Lanzhou, 730020, China

    Xiao Wen Hu, Xiao Hui Huang & Yan Rong Wang

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  1. Xiao Wen Hu
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  2. Xiao Hui Huang
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  3. Yan Rong Wang
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Correspondence to Xiao Wen Hu or Yan Rong Wang.

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Hu, X.W., Huang, X.H. & Wang, Y.R. Hormonal and temperature regulation of seed dormancy and germination in Leymus chinensis . Plant Growth Regul 67, 199–207 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-012-9677-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-012-9677-3

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