Screening of chemicals which disturb Arabidopsis seed germination response to temperature

Abstract

Germination inhibition by high temperature (thermoinhibition) is crucial for winter annual seeds to germinate and establish seedling in autumn. In this study, we screened chemicals which suppress and alleviate germination of Columbia seeds at permissive (28^oC) and non-permissive (34^oC) high temperature conditions, respectively. We also screened "chemical suppressors" which revert thremoinhibition resistant germination phenotype of trg1 mutant seeds. Interestingly, the hit chemicals which suppress germination of Columbia seeds at 28^oC did not inhibit germination of the seeds at 22^oC. Most of them did not suppress germination of trg1 seeds, and suppressor chemicals for trg1 did not inhibit germination of the wild type seeds. The hit chemicals may be useful to understand thermoinhibition mechanism and to develop germiantion regulators for crops.