Dormancy-specific imprinting underlies maternal inheritance of seed dormancy in Arabidopsis thaliana
- University of Geneva, Switzerland
- Yokohama City University, Japan
Abstract
Mature seed dormancy is a vital plant trait preventing germination out of season. In Arabidopsis, the trait can be maternally regulated but the underlying mechanisms sustaining this regulation, its general occurrence and biological significance among accessions is poorly understood. Upon seed imbibition, the endosperm is essential to repress germination of dormant seeds. Investigation of genomic imprinting in the mature seed endosperm led us to identify a novel set of imprinted genes expressed upon seed imbibition. Remarkably, programs of imprinted gene expression are adapted according to the dormancy status of the seed. We provide direct evidence that imprinted genes play a role to regulate germination processes and that preferential maternal allelic expression can implement maternal inheritance of seed dormancy levels.
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Author details
Funding
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Urszula Piskurewicz
- Mayumi Iwasaki
- Christian Megies
- Luis Lopez-Molina
Grant in Aid for Scientific Research on innovative area (16H06465,16H06464,and 16K21727)
- Daichi Susaki
- Tetsu Kinoshita
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2016, Piskurewicz et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Dormancy-specific imprinting underlies maternal inheritance of seed dormancy in Arabidopsis thaliana
eLife 5:e19573.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.19573
Further reading
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- Plant Biology
Urea is intensively utilized as a nitrogen fertilizer in agriculture, originating either from root uptake or from catabolism of arginine by arginase. Despite its extensive use, the underlying physiological mechanisms of urea, particularly its adverse effects on seed germination and seedling growth under salt stress, remain unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that salt stress induces excessive hydrolysis of arginine-derived urea, leading to an increase in cytoplasmic pH within seed radical cells, which, in turn, triggers salt-induced inhibition of seed germination (SISG) and hampers seedling growth. Our findings challenge the long-held belief that ammonium accumulation and toxicity are the primary causes of SISG, offering a novel perspective on the mechanism underlying these processes. This study provides significant insights into the physiological impact of urea hydrolysis under salt stress, contributing to a better understanding of SISG.
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- Plant Biology
Salt stress delays seed germination in plants by increasing the hydrolysis of arginine-derived urea.
