Seed research for improved technologies

Abstract

The production of high-quality seed is the basis for a durable a profitable agriculture. After production, seed is processed, conditioned, stored, shipped and germinated. For quality assurance, seed quality has to be controlled at all steps of the production chain. Seed functioning is accompanied by programmed transitions from cell proliferation to quiescence upon maturation and from quiescence to reinitiation of cellular metabolism upon imbibition. Despite the obvious importance of these control mechanisms, very little information is available at the molecular level concerning those elements that regulate seed germination. In the present study, the induction of cell cycle activity and the regulation of ß-tubulin expression is related to the water content and other physical properties of the seed.