Research Progress in Seed Dormancy and Pre-harvest Sprouting

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 3689

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Horticultural and Plant Protection, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
Interests: seed dormancy; life history strategy; seed bank; ecology and evolution; biotic interaction
State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Interests: abiotic stress tolerance; seed ecology; phytohormone signaling; seed heteromorphism; halophytles
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Dormancy is a mechanism that has evolved to prevent seeds from germinating under environmental conditions that are adverse for the establishment and survival of seedlings; it inhibits pre-harvest spouting or vivipary. Information on seed dormancy is important because it contributes to a better understanding of certain biological concepts, such as plant reproductive strategies, life history traits, adaptation to habitats and physiological and molecular processes. Prolonged dormancy, however, can lead to non-uniform germination in the field. As a result, studies on seed dormancy and seed sprouting prior to crop harvest can provide significant information related to scientific theories in the fields of forestry, agriculture, and food science.

This Special Issue aims to give an overview of the most recent advances in the field of the stimulation of dormancy release and/or prevention of pre-harvest sprouting. It is aimed at providing information on the advances in the seed germination of various plant taxon in relation to scientific theories, agriculture, forestry, and food science. In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Aerial/soil seed banks;
  • Germination ecology;
  • Germination molecular biology;
  • Pre-harvest sprouting;
  • Seed heteromorphism;
  • Seed dormancy;
  • Seed priming;
  • Seed development.

Dr. Keliang Zhang
Dr. Lei Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • seed dormancy
  • imbibition
  • seed quality
  • seed development
  • stratification
  • molecular regulation
  • GA
  • pre-harvest sprouting
  • crop
  • horticultural plants

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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13 pages, 2221 KiB  
Article
Germination Strategy of Chenopodium acuminatum Willd. under Fluctuating Salinity Habitats
by Yu Tian, Yang Li, Hongxiang Zhang, Kushan U. Tennakoon and Zewei Sun
Agronomy 2023, 13(11), 2769; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13112769 - 5 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1500
Abstract
Germination events of plants often occur after rainfall in saline environments where the soil salinity is diluted, viz recovery germination. Previous germination studies have rarely considered the duration of exposure to salt stress, and none of them have investigated recovery germination under low-salt [...] Read more.
Germination events of plants often occur after rainfall in saline environments where the soil salinity is diluted, viz recovery germination. Previous germination studies have rarely considered the duration of exposure to salt stress, and none of them have investigated recovery germination under low-salt concentration, other than in distilled water. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of salinity, exposure duration and low-salt recovery solutions on seed germination of the weed Chenopodium acuminatum to get a clear insight about the germination strategy exhibited by this species in a saline habitat. Seeds were initially exposed to 0–400 mM NaCl for 10, 20 and 30 d. The subsequent recovery experiment was conducted differently. For those initially treated with 100 and 200 mM NaCl, the recovery solution was distilled water, while for those initially treated with 300 and 400 mM NaCl, the recovery solution was distilled water, at 50 and 100 mM NaCl. Results showed that the recovery germination percentage and rate significantly decreased when the exposure duration extended. Seeds could subsequently recover to germinate at high percentages at recovery salt solution concentrations for a short duration, but the recovery percentages and rates in high salinity, combined with high exposure duration and relatively high recovery salt concentrations, were remarkably lower. More than 30% of the ungerminated seeds were viable after the recovery experiment. We suggest that Ch. acuminatum exhibits a ‘cautious’ strategy of germination to avoid injury from long-term salt stress and ensure survival for the subsequent continuation of its population under unfavorable saline conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Progress in Seed Dormancy and Pre-harvest Sprouting)
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11 pages, 2228 KiB  
Article
Seed Dormancy and Germination Requirements of Torilis scabra (Apiaceae)
by Lei Zhang, Chaohan Xu, Huina Liu, Jun Tao and Keliang Zhang
Agronomy 2023, 13(5), 1250; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13051250 - 27 Apr 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1667
Abstract
The timing of seed germination significantly affects the fitness and life cycle of plants. Torilis scabra is a perennial medicinal herb occurring in mixed forests but the increasing use and modification of forestlands in recent decades has led to the degeneration of its [...] Read more.
The timing of seed germination significantly affects the fitness and life cycle of plants. Torilis scabra is a perennial medicinal herb occurring in mixed forests but the increasing use and modification of forestlands in recent decades has led to the degeneration of its natural habitat. Nonetheless, the requirements for germination in T. scabra remain unclear. The present study focused on identifying conditions necessary to break T. scabra seed dormancy and describing its seed dormancy type. By periodically collecting seeds that were sown in the field, germination phenology was studied. The impact of light, temperature, and warm/cold stratification on breaking seed dormancy and promoting germination was also determined through incubating seeds in laboratory conditions. Additionally, the effect of GA3 was explored to more accurately identify the type of dormancy present. The results demonstrated that the seeds of T. scabra possessed small, undeveloped embryos with physiological dormancy at the time of maturity. In the field, embryo growth initiated in early spring and the embryo–seed length ratio increased by ~300% before the radical emerged. In the laboratory, the embryo–seed length ratio increased from 0.24 to 0.82 when seeds were subjected to cold stratification at 4 °C and then transferred to 15/25 °C. Germination was observed across a broad temperature range after cold stratification. GA3 also helped to break dormancy but after-ripening did not. Taken together, the results suggest that seeds of T. scabra have non-deep simple morphophysiological dormancy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Progress in Seed Dormancy and Pre-harvest Sprouting)
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