种子休眠与萌发是植物由生殖生长进入营养生长转变的关键时期，是决定植物生存发展的重要生态性状，也是制约作物高产优质的关键农艺性状。由于种子是低含水量高储藏物质低代谢活性的特殊器官，目前对种子休眠和萌发的分子调控机制了解较少。我们通过突变体筛选发现ESD缺失可以导致种子休眠加深，生物信息分析显示ESD为未知功能蛋白，目前还没有关于ESD功能与植物发育相关的报道。因此，项目拟从ESD的分子功能入手，利用生理生化、分子遗传、组学、植物激素生理以及细胞生物学技术等方法，研究ESD调控种子休眠萌发的分子机制，阐述ESD参与调控种子休眠萌发的分子网络，为遗传育种改良作物提高产量和品质提供理论基础。

Seed dormancy and germination is a very important transition stage from reproductive growth to vegetative growth, which are the pivotal ecological and agricultural traits which directly determine the timing of seed germination and affect crop yield and food quality in agriculture. Transition stages are characterised by specific transcriptomes and require silencing and activation of diverse sets of genes. However, little is known about the molecular mechnisms of seed dormancy and germination. Recently we found that ESD is involved in the regulation of seed dormancy and germination, but nothing is reported about ESD function and roles in plant development in Arabidopsis. Therefore, we make this proposal to further investigate the function of ESD in combining several approaches such as molecular genetics, transcriptomics, physiology and biochemistry to uncover gene regulatory network or genetic regulatory network in regulating seed germination. We will focus on: (1) molecular mechanisms of ESD in seed dormancy and germination; (2) the crosslink between or among the genes related to seed dormancy and germination. The work will be very helpful for improving the crops in the future.