Reporter Genes to Study Seed Germination and Dormancy

9722978 Bradford种子萌发是植物生命周期中一个关键的发育过程。虽然种子通常对环境压力相当耐受，但幼苗极易受到极端温度或水分供应的影响。考虑到我们对导致种子萌发的分子事件知之甚少，本文提出的工作旨在为种子萌发提供分子标记。更好地理解的一个障碍是，即使是基因背景相同的种子，也会在不同的时间发芽。这项工作将研究导致这种异质性的机制，利用可用的萌发特异性基因启动子控制下的GFP报告基因的表达。不仅可以监测表达模式，还可以使用报告蛋白来选择发芽阶段。此外，还将研究植物生长调节剂对不同休眠或萌发程度种子中这些启动子活性的影响。本研究结果对重要农艺学性状萌发具有明显的应用价值。

9722978 Bradford Seed germination is a critical developmental transition in the plant life cycle. While seeds are generally quite tolerant of environmental stresses, seedlings are highly vulnerable to extremes of temperature or water availability. Considering that our understanding of the molecular events that lead to germination is scant, the work proposed here is designed to provide molecular markers for seed germination. One obstacle to a better understanding is that seeds, even from a genetically uniform background, germinate at different times. The work will study the mechanisms that lead to this heterogeneity using the expression of GFP reporters under the control of promoters for germination-specific genes which are available. Not only will the pattern of expression be monitored, the reporter protein will be used to select stages of germination. Additionally, the influence of plant growth regulators on the activity of these promoters in seeds with different degree of dormancy or germination will be studied. The application of results from this work for the agronomically important trait germination is obvious.