The studies were carried out on Fagus svlvatica seeds during stratification and their germination. After imbibition beechnuts were subjected to cold (3 'C -temperature which breaks dormancy) or warm (15 C -temperature unable to break dormancy) stratification and alternatively were treated with polyamine synthesis inhibitors: canavanine and DFMO (difluoromethylornithine). After cold stratification in embryo axes we found (using 2-D electrophoresis) about 150 new proteins absent in dry seeds. Exogenous spermidine increased the protein synthesis, percent of germinated seeds and accelerated breaking of dormancy. In contrast, canavanine and DFMO decreased dynamic of protein synthesis, quantity of proteins probably synthesised de novo, and percent of germinated seeds. The maximum of polyamine content in embryo axes during cold stratification preceded such the maximum during warm stratification. Irrespective of the influence of PAs and inhi bitors of PA synthesis, the comparison of electrophoregrams and autoradiograms showed that different groups synthesised de novo appeared after different periods of cold stratification. Probably the part of this protein is associated with Fagus syh'atica seeds dormancy breaking.

Ab stractWe ana lysed changes in AMP, ADP, and ATP con cen tra tions and adenylate en ergy charge in Nor way ma ple (Acer platanoides L.) and Eu ro pean beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) seeds during dor mancy break ing (at 3 °C) and in the con trol vari ant at 15°C. Val ues of the stud ied in di ca tors in strat i fied beech seeds were gen er ally higher at 15 °C, at least un til ger mi na tion (+3°C ). By con trast, in ma ple seeds, the val ues re corded dur ing dor mancy break ing by cold strat i fi ca tion were much higher than at 15 °C. Three peaks (usu ally in weeks 3, 6, and 8) were ob served in ma ple seeds at 3 °C, but not at 15 °C. Among ad enine nu cleo tides, AMP reached the high est lev els in both species in both vari ants of the ex per i ment.List of ab bre vi a tions: ATP -adenosine triphosphate, ADP -adenosine diphosphate, AMP -adeno sine monophosphate, PVPP -polyvinyl polypyrrolidone, AEC -adenylate en ergy charge. In tro duc tionATP is the main en ergy source for bi o log i cal processes, in clud ing seed ger mi na tion. In the qui escent dry seed, the adenosine pool is mainly composed of AMP and ADP (Bewley and Black 1994).ATP is syn the sized rap idly upon wa ter up take and re sump tion of met a bolic ac tiv ity in the seed. ATP is es sen tial for ger mi na tion and is used in an a bo lic pro cesses, such as RNA and pro tein syn the sis (Cool bear et al. 1990, De Cas tro et al. 1995.Dor mancy re lease of seeds is ac com pa nied by protein syn the sis, ATP ac cu mu la tion, res pi ra tion and other met a bolic pro cesses (Szczotka and Tomaszewska 1980, Szczotka and Tomaszewska 1980, Pawłowski and Szczotka 2001, Szczotka et al. 2003, Goldmark et al. 1992, Li and Foley 1995. This clearly in di cates that dormancy re lease is an ac tive phys i o log i cal pro cess, but in the meristems of em bryo axes their cells start to di vide only af ter dor mancy break ing.Our ear lier stud ies, car ried out for many years, attested to nu mer ous met a bolic changes as well as vari able ac tiv ity of many pro cesses, and an swered many ques tions about mech a nisms of dor mancy break ing in stud ied tree seeds dur ing cold strat i fi cation. We also found that at the ap plied con trol temper a ture of 15 °C and high hu mid ity, dor mancy was not bro ken but in stead ag ing pro cesses were ac celer ated, so seed vi a bil ity was quickly lost (Suszka 1990). 455 ACTA PHYSIOLOGIAEPLANTARUM

The activity of ATPases was studied in embryo axes and cotyledons of Norway maple seeds stratified at 3^oC (dormancy broken) and 15^oC (dormancy not broken). The activity of mitochondrial (F. III) and activity connected with all cellular membranes (F. Il) and soluble fraction (F. I) ATPases was investigated. It was found that mitochondrial ATPases are the most active. The activity of all types of ATPases is greater in seeds stratified at 3^oC. It increases during seed dormancy breaking, particularly in the case of mitochondrial ATPases. The rise in the activity of mitochondrial and others ATPases in embryo axes of seeds stratified at 3^oC is stepwise. In seeds stratified at 15^oC ATPase activity generally decreases

Protein synthesis in cotyledons and embryo axes of Norway maple (Acer platanoides L.) was studied in seeds stratified at 3 or 15^oC. At 3^oC stratification, germination of seeds starts after 9 weeks, at 15^oC stratification germination does not occur. The changes of protein synthesis level in both temperatures had two phasic character. In embryo axes (3 and 15^oC) protein synthesis grow up, but in cotyledons (3^oC) synthesis of proteins decrease. Generally, activity of protein synthesis was higher at 3^oC, as like as DNA level was higher. After imbibition, in cold and warm stratification, in embryo axes, many new protein are become visible. We expect, that two from this proteins, determined as A and B my be connected with the releasing from dormancy. In seeds stratified at 15^oC, these proteins are occuring in vestigal amount or are completely absent