IFEVA   02662
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES FISIOLOGICAS Y ECOLOGICAS VINCULADAS A LA AGRICULTURA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
capítulos de libros
Título:
Maize Germination: physiological and molecular aspects
Autor/es:
ROBERTO LUIS BENECH-ARNOLD; DIEGO BATLLA; JORGE MANUEL VÁZQUEZ-RAMOS
Libro:
Advances in Maize
Editorial:
Society of Experimental Biology
Referencias:
Lugar: Reino Unido; Año: 2009;
Resumen:
Maize Germination: physiological and molecular aspects   Roberto Benech-Arnold1, Diego Batlla1. and Jorge Manuel Vázquez-Ramos2*. 1IFEVA-Cultivos Industriales y Cerealicultura, Facultad de Agronomía-UBA. Av. San Martin 4453, 1417-Buenos Aires, Argentina and 2Facultad de Química, Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Avenida Universidad y Copilco, México D.F. 04510, México. Introduction   Maize (Zea mays L) evolved together with evolution of prehispanic America, not only as a food source but also by influencing cultural and religious aspects of life and it is up to now the most important cereal for human consumption in México, Central, and part of, South America. Mexico appears to be the center of origin of maize, some 6000 years ago, starting from an ancestor called teocintle. Apparently, domestication of teocintle caused the loss of its natural defenses so that maize cannot survive without human care. Human selection has produced a wide amount of varieties, having differences in cob shape and size and grains with different size, colour or shape. Anatomically, maize seeds are composed of a waxy external coat, called testa, the endosperm that comprises the majority of the seed volume and the embryo, which is formed by scutellum or cotyledon, coleoptile, plumule or embryonic axis, radicle and coleorrhyza. It is the embryonic axis that will give origin to a new plant.   In this chapter we will concentrate in reviewing two important aspects of maize germination: one concerned with the environmental control of germination and another dealing with molecular events that are fundamental for germination and seedling establishment that occur mainly in the embryonic axis.