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Sensitivity to ethylene as a major component in the germination of seeds of Stylosanthes humilis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2007

Dimas Mendes Ribeiro  and
Raimundo Santos Barros
Dimas Mendes Ribeiro
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, 36571-000, Viçosa, MG, Brazil
Raimundo Santos Barros*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, 36571-000, Viçosa, MG, Brazil
*
*Correspondence: Fax: +55 31 3899 2580, Email: rsbarros@ufv.br
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Abstract

Physiological dormancy of scarified seeds of Townsville stylo (Stylosanthes humilis H.B.K.) is broken by ethylene. When the biosynthesis of this gas was impaired by 2-aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG) plus Co2+, the response to ethylene at very low concentrations was appreciable in non-dormant seeds and nil in the dormant ones. Complete inhibition of germination of non-dormant seeds occurred only when they were treated with AVG plus Co2+ under an ethylene-free atmosphere, a condition in which no trace of the gas in the atmosphere of Erlenmeyer flasks could be detected. Injection of ethylene into that system triggered germination of both dormant and non-dormant seeds, demonstrating a requirement for the gas. Non-dormant seeds were at least 50-fold more sensitive to ethylene than the dormant ones. Perception of ethylene occurred within a very short time (at most 15 min), since exposure of both dormant and non-dormant seeds to the gas, at a steeply declining concentration, sufficed to cause substantial germination.

Keywords

dormancyethylenegerminationhormone sensitivityinhibitionStylosanthes humilis
Type
Research Article
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 37 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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