9722978 Bradford Seed germination is a critical developmental transition in the plant life cycle. While seeds are generally quite tolerant of environmental stresses, seedlings are highly vulnerable to extremes of temperature or water availability. Considering that our understanding of the molecular events that lead to germination is scant, the work proposed here is designed to provide molecular markers for seed germination. One obstacle to a better understanding is that seeds, even from a genetically uniform background, germinate at different times. The work will study the mechanisms that lead to this heterogeneity using the expression of GFP reporters under the control of promoters for germination-specific genes which are available. Not only will the pattern of expression be monitored, the reporter protein will be used to select stages of germination. Additionally, the influence of plant growth regulators on the activity of these promoters in seeds with different degree of dormancy or germination will be studied. The application of results from this work for the agronomically important trait germination is obvious.
