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Reduced seed germination in Arabidopsis over‐expressing SWI / SNF2 ATPase genes
Author(s) -
Leeggangers Hendrika A. C. F.,
Folta Adam,
Muras Aleksandra,
Nap JanPeter,
Mlynarova Ludmila
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physiologia plantarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.351
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1399-3054
pISSN - 0031-9317
DOI - 10.1111/ppl.12231
Subject(s) - germination , arabidopsis , biology , arabidopsis thaliana , mutant , gene , chromatin remodeling , gibberellin , gene expression , microbiology and biotechnology , chromatin , atpase , botany , genetics , biochemistry , enzyme
In the life of flowering plants, seed germination is a critical step to ensure survival into the next generation. Generally the seed prior to germination has been in a dormant state with a low rate of metabolism. In the transition from a dormant seed to a germinating seed, various epigenetic mechanisms play a regulatory role. Here, we demonstrate that the over‐expression of chromatin remodeling ATPase genes ( AtCHR12 or AtCHR23 ) reduced the frequency of seed germination in Arabidopsis thaliana up to 30% relative to the wild‐type seeds. On the other hand, single loss‐of‐function mutations of the two genes did not affect seed germination. The reduction of germination in over‐expressing mutants was more pronounced in stress conditions (salt or high temperature), showing the impact of the environment. Reduced germinations upon over‐expression coincided with increased transcript levels of seed maturation genes and with reduced degradation of their mRNAs stored in dry seeds. Our results indicate that repression of AtCHR12 /23 gene expression in germinating wild‐type Arabidopsis seeds is required for full germination. This establishes a functional link between chromatin modifiers and regulatory networks towards seed maturation and germination.