Photoperiod throughout the maternal life cycle, not photoperiod during seed imbibition, influences germination in Arabidopsis thaliana

TOSHIYUKI IMAIZUMI; GABRIELA A AUGE; KATHLEEN DONOHUE

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY

BOTANICAL SOC AMER INC

Año: 2017

0002-9122

PREMISE OF STUDY: Plants adjust their phenology in response to seasonal cues experienced both by their parents and by themselves, and coordinating responses to these cues is necessary for expressing adaptive phenology. We investigated how cues are integrated across time to influence an important progeny phenotype: seed germination. METHODS: We use Arabidopsis thaliana to investigate how the photoperiod experienced by maternal parents and by progeny influences seed germination. We examined when maternal photoperiod effects on germination are imposed and how long they persist in progeny. KEY RESULTS: The photoperiod experienced by maternal plants more strongly influenced germination than the photoperiod experienced by imbibing seeds, and the photoperiod experienced at the pre-reproductive stage frequently influenced germination as strongly as that experienced during seed maturation. In general seeds from plants grown under short days had higher seed germination than seeds from plants grown in longer days. These maternal effects diminished with after-ripening, but reappeared in seeds induced into secondary dormancy.CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence that the effect of photoperiod systematically attenuates in proportion to the time that elapsed between the cue and the timing of seed germination. Moreover, more recently experienced cues did not override the effects of cues experienced previously. Instead, specific sequences of photoperiods experienced at the pre-reproductive and reproductive stages appear to influence germination behavior.