Penfield: Understanding the affect of maternal environment on seed dormancy

Maternal environment is an important regultor of seed dormancy, but the mechanisms underlying the process are poorly understood. We have found that genes in the circadian clock control dormancy, in part through their regulation of the canonical photoperiod pathway known from research into flowering time control. In this experiment we compare the affects of altering seed maturation temperature or maternal photoperiod on dry seed transcriptomes, and the photoperiod-insenstive ft-1 mutant to wt type Ler. In this way we are identifying gene expression programmes which result from the seed's response to maternal environmental experience.

12

Kendall SL, Hellwege A, Marriot P, Whalley C, Graham IA, Penfield S