Robert Geneve, Professor

Bruce Downie, Assistant Professor

Sharon Kester, Research Analyst

Gunching Siriwitayawan

 

There is a strong relationship between seed vigor, time to radicle protrusion and the ability for seeds to make ethylene. Key developments in this project include:

• High vigor seeds start producing ethylene sooner and evolve larger quantities of ethylene compared to low vigor seeds.
• ACC-Oxidase appears to be the key enzyme associated with controlling ethylene production during germination as it relates to seed vigor.
• Seeds treated with ACC or ethylene show reduced time to radicle protrusion.
• Germination studies using receptor mutants for ethylene perception in Arabidopsis generally support a physiological role for ethylene in determining the time to radicle protrusion.

Publications:

Siriwitayawan, G., A. B. Downie, and R.L. Geneve. 2003. Seed germination in ethylene insensitive mutants from tomato and arabidopsis. Seed Science Research, submitted.

Siriwitayawan, G., A. B. Downie, and R.L. Geneve. 2003. Ethylene evolution is positively correlated with seed vigor in sweet corn and tomato seed lots with differing vigor levels but similar germination capacity. Journal American Society for Horticultural Science, submitted.

Siriwitayawan, G., M. Dutt, S. T. Kester, A. B. Downie, and R.L. Geneve. 2003. Seed ageing in tomato reduces the capacity of seeds to produce ethylene, while priming increases ethylene evolution during germination. In: K.J. Bradford, D. Come, G. Nicolas and H. Pritchard, (eds.) The Biology of Seeds: Recent Research Advances CAB International.

Dutt, M. and R.L. Geneve. 2003. Elevated levels of ethylene during germination reduces the time to radicle emergence in impatiens. Acta Horticulturae, In press.