Regulation of Seed Dormancy and Germination Mechanisms in a Changing Environment

Abstract

Environmental conditions are the basis of plant reproduction and are the critical factors controlling seed dormancy and germination. Global climate change is currently affecting environmental conditions and changing the reproduction of plants from seeds. Disturbances in germination will cause disturbances in the diversity of plant communities. Models developed for climate change scenarios show that some species will face a significant decrease in suitable habitat area. Dormancy is an adaptive mechanism that affects the probability of survival of a species. The ability of seeds of many plant species to survive until dormancy recedes and meet the requirements for germination is an adaptive strategy that can act as a buffer against the negative effects of environmental heterogeneity. The influence of temperature and humidity on seed dormancy status underlines the need to understand how changing environmental conditions will affect seed germination patterns. Knowledge of these processes is important for understanding plant evolution and adaptation to changes in the habitat. The network of genes controlling seed dormancy under the influence of environmental conditions is not fully characterized. Integrating research techniques from different disciplines of biology could aid understanding of the mechanisms of the processes controlling seed germination. Transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenetics, and other fields provide researchers with new opportunities to understand the many processes of plant life. This paper focuses on presenting the adaptation mechanism of seed dormancy and germination to the various environments, with emphasis on their prospective roles in adaptation to the changing climate.

Identification of the Potential Genes Regulating Seed Germination Speed in Maize

“…Seed germination is an essential stage in the life cycle of higher plants [1]. The germinating seeds are highly vulnerable to biotic and abiotic factors including pathogen infection, extreme temperatures, drought, light, waterlogging, and salinity [2][3][4][5]. For instance, the frequent low temperature in the northern parts of China often causes collapsed seed germination, resulting in the high cost of planting and great loss in grain yield.…”

Extinction Risk of Sonoran Desert Annuals Following Potential Changes in Precipitation Regimes

“…In fact, the flowering time of Boechera stricta (Brassicaeae), a mustard native to the US Rocky Mountains, has advanced significantly by 0.34 days per year between 1973 and 2011 due to warmer temperatures and earlier snowmelt dates (Franks et al, 2014; Anderson et al, 2012). Desert annuals have also been shown to evolve seed dormancy fractions in response to climatic variation and may do so on short time scales (Klupczyńska and Pawłowski, 2021; Clauss and Venable, 2000; Volis and Bohrer, 2013; Fernández-Pascual et al, 2013). However, while some populations and species have adjusted well to environmental change, evidence of climate maladaptation are growing (Franks et al, 2014; Crowley et al, 2019; Anderson and Song, 2020; Potvin and Tousignant, 1996; Springate et al, 2011; Robertson et al, 2013; Wilczek et al, 2014; Anderson and Wadgymar, 2020).…”

“…In doing so, environmental risk can be spread across individuals from the same lineage and across multiple years, so that they may survive catastrophic years (Danforth, 1999; Venable, 2007). For example, plant species in the Mediterranean, the desert, and other extreme and variable environments rely on delayed germination through seed dormancy and seed persistence in order to buffer against disastrous years (Venable, 2007; Koornneef et al, 2002; Klupczyńska and Pawlowski, 2021; Tielborger et al, 2012). Here, seed dormancy refers to the prevention of intact, viable seeds from germinating under favorable conditions (Venable, 2007; Allen and Meyer, 2002; Carta et al, 2013).…”

Stories from the Greenhouse—A Brief on Cotton Seed Germination

“…One of the major survival adaptations of seeds is dormancy. This phenomenon allows the seed to delay and coordinate germination according to environmental conditions and it is essential to the conservation and proliferation of a species [2][3][4][5]. Generally, dormant seeds naturally start or resume the germination process once they detect environmental signals indicating suitable conditions for plant development such as temperature fluctuations, water availability, and even smoke [6,7].…”