Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T22:12:43.212Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evolutionary considerations of claims for physical dormancy-break by microbial action and abrasion by soil particles†

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2007

Jerry M. Baskin  and
Carol C. Baskin
Jerry M. Baskin*
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506–0225, USA
Carol C. Baskin
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506–0225, USA Department of Agronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546–0091, USA
*
*Correspondence Fax: 859–257–1717 Email: jmbasko@ukcc.uky.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Books and review articles in various areas of ecology and seed and plant biology continue to report that dormancy-break in seeds (and fruits) with water-impermeable coats (i.e. physical dormancy) occurs via soil-microbial action and/or abrasion by soil particles. However, there is little evidence in the scientific literature to support these assumptions, which, in fact, do not make good evolutionary sense for two related reasons. First, several types of anatomically specialized water-restriction structures have evolved as part of the seed or fruit coat of taxa with physical dormancy. These structures act as ‘signal detectors’ of physical-environmental changes that cause seeds (and fruits) to become water-permeable only at these sites, in seasons and habitats in which there is a good chance that some seedlings will become established. Second, seed (and fruit) coat breakdown by microbial action or by abrasion likely would occur in seasons and habitats in which seedlings could not survive, thus lowering the fitness (λ) of the plant taxa in question.

Keywords

abrasion and physical dormancyevolution and physical dormancymicrobes and physical dormancysignal detectors and physical dormancy
Type
Research Opinion
Information
Seed Science Research , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , December 2000 , pp. 409 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

This Research Opinion is open to discussion and comment from readers through the Journal's Correspondence section.

References

Aguinagalde, I., Perez-Garcia, F. and Gonzalez, A.E. (1990) Flavonoids in seed coats of two Colutea species: Ecophysiological aspects. Journal of Basic Microbiology 30, 547–553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aitken, Y. (1939) The problem of hard seeds in subterranean clover. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 51, 187–213.Google Scholar
Baskin, C.C. and Baskin, J.M. (1998) Seeds: Ecology, biogeography, and evolution of dormancy and germination. San Diego, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Baskin, J.M. and Baskin, C.C. (1997) Methods of breaking seed dormancy in the endangered species Iliamna corei (Sherff) Sherff (Malvaceae), with special attention to heating. Natural Areas Journal 17, 313–323.Google Scholar
Baskin, J.M., Baskin, C.C. and Li, X. (2000) Taxonomy, ecology, and evolution of physical dormancy. Plant Species Biology 15, 139–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bewley, J.D. and Black, M. (1994) Seeds. Physiology of development and germination. (2nd edition) New York, Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boesewinkel, F.D. and Bouman, F. (1995) The seed: Structure and function. pp. 1–24in Kigel, J.; Galili, G. (Eds) Seed development and germination. New York, Marcel Dekker.Google Scholar
Dell, B. (1980) Structure and function of the strophiolar plug in seeds of Albizia lophantha. American Journal of Botany 67, 556–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egley, G.H. (1989) Water-impermeable seed coverings as barriers to germination. pp. 207–223in Taylorson, R.B. (Ed.) Recent advances in the development and germination of seeds. New York, Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egley, G.H. and Paul, R.N. Jr. (1981) Morphological observations on the early imbibition of water by Sida spinosa (Malvaceae) seed. American Journal of Botany 68, 1056–1065.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egley, G.H., Paul, R.N., Jr. and Lax, A.R. (1986) Seed coat imposed dormancy: Histochemistry of the region controlling onset of water entry into Sida spinosa seeds. Physiologia Plantarum 67, 320–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Endrizzi, J.E. (1974) Survival of seed of Gossypium thurberi. Cotton Growing Review 51, 35–38.Google Scholar
Fenner, M. (1985) Seed ecology. London, Chapman and Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitter, A.H. and Hay, R.K.M. (1987) Environmental physiology of plants. (2nd edition) London, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Geneve, R.L. (1998) Seed dormancy in commercial vegetable and flower species. Seed Technology 20, 236–250.Google Scholar
Gogue, G.J. and Emino, E.R. (1979) Seed coat scarification of Albizia julibrissin Durazz by natural mechanisms. Journal of the American Society of Horticultural Science 104, 421–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopinathan, M.C. and Babu, C.R. (1985) Structural diversity and its adaptive significance in seeds of Vigna minima (Roxb.) Ohwi & Ohashi and its allies (Leguminosae - Papilionoideae). Annals of Botany 56, 723–732.Google Scholar
Gutterman, Y. (1993) Seed germination in desert plants. Berlin, Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guttridge, C.G., Woodley, S.E. and Hunter, T. (1984) Accelerating strawberry seed germination by fungal infection. Annals of Botany 54, 223–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halloin, J.M. (1983) Deterioration resistance mechanisms in seeds. Phytopathology 73, 335–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanna, P.J. (1984) Anatomical features of the seed coat of Acacia kempeana (Mueller) which relate to increased germination rate induced by heat treatment. New Phytologist 96, 23–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, J.L. (1977) Population biology of plants. London, Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hill, A.W. (1933) The methods of germination of seeds enclosed in a stony endocarp. Annals of Botany (old series) 47, 873–887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, A.W. (1937) The method of germination of seeds enclosed in a stony endocarp. II. Annals of Botany 1, 239–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphrey Jones, D.R. and Waid, J.S. (1963) Influence of fungal isolates on germination and growth of perennial ryegrass. Plant and Soil 19, 139–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirkpatrick, B.L. and Bazzaz, F.A. (1979) Influence of certain pathogenic fungi on seed germination and seedling survival of four colonizing annuals. Journal of Applied Ecology 16, 515–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kremer, R.J. (1986a) Microorganisms associated with velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti) seeds on the soil surface. Weed Science 34, 233–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kremer, R.J. (1986b) Antimicrobial activity of velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti) seeds. Weed Science 34, 617–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kremer, R.J. (1987) Identity and properties of bacteria inhabiting seeds of broadleaf weed species. Microbial Ecology 14, 29–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kremer, R.J. (1993) Management of weed seed banks with microorganisms. Ecological Applications 3, 42–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kremer, R.J., Hughes, L.B. and Aldrich, R.J. (1984) Examination of microorganisms and deterioration resistance mechanisms associated with velvetleaf seed. Agronomy Journal 76, 745–749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kremer, R.J. and Schulte, L.K. (1989) Influence of chemical treatment and Fusarium oxysporum on velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti). Weed Technology 3, 369–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambers, H., Chapin, F.S. III and Pons, T.L. (1998) Plant physiological ecology. New York, Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larcher, W. (1995) Physiological plant ecology. (3rd edition) Berlin, Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, X.J., Baskin, J.M. and Baskin, C.C. (1999) Anatomy of two mechanisms of breaking physical dormancy by experimental treatments in seeds of two North American Rhus species (Anacardiaceae). American Journal of Botany 86, 1505–1511.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lüttge, U. (1997) Physiological ecology of tropical plants. Berlin, Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, A.M. and Poljakoff-Mayber, A. (1989) The germination of seeds. (4th edition) Oxford, Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
McKeon, G.M. and Mott, J.J. (1982) The effect of temperature on field softening of hard seed of Stylosanthes humilis and S. hamada in a dry monsoonal climate. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 33, 75–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, R., Clark, W.D. and Vodopich, D.S. (1998) Botany. (2nd edition) Boston, McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Perez-Garcia, F., Ceresuela, J.L., Gonzalez, A.E. and Aguinagalde, I. (1992) Flavonoids in seed coats of Medicago arborea and M. strasseri (Leguminosae): Ecophysiological aspects. Journal of Basic Microbiology 32, 241–248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Probert, R.J. (1981) The promotive effects of a mould, Penicillium funiculosum Thom. on the germination of Oryzopsis miliacea (L.) Asch. et Schw. Annals of Botany 48, 85–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinlivan, B.J. (1971) Seed coat impermeability in legumes. Journal of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Sciences 37, 283–295.Google Scholar
Raven, P.H., Evert, R.F. and Eichhorn, S.E. (1999) Biology of plants. (6th edition) New York, W.H. Freeman and Co.Google Scholar
Rolston, M.P. (1978) Water impermeable seed dormancy. The Botanical Review 44, 365–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salisbury, F.B. and Ross, C.W. (1992) Plant physiology. (4th edition) Belmont, California, Wadsworth Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Silvertown, J.W. and Lovett Doust, J. (1993) Introduction to plant population biology. Oxford, Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Simpson, D.M., Adams, C.L. and Stone, G.M. (1940) Anatomical structure of the cottonseed coat as related to problems of germination. United States Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin 734. Washington, DC, USDA.Google Scholar
Stern, K.R. (1994) Introductory plant biology. (6th edition) Dubuque, Iowa, William C. Brown Publishers.Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, B.H. (1981) Influence of micro-organisms on the germination of the monocarpic Cirsium vulgare in relation to disturbance. Oecologia 48, 112–115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Staden, J., Manning, J.C. and Kelly, K.M. (1989) Legume seeds - The structure: function equation. pp. 417–450in Stirton, C.H.; Zarucchi, J.L. (Eds) Advances in legume biology. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden 29. St. Louis, Missouri, Missouri Botanical Garden.Google Scholar
Vásquez-Yanes, C. and Orozco-Segovia, A. (1982) Seed germination of a tropical rainforest tree (Heliocarpus donnell-smithii) in response to diurnal fluctuation of temperature. Physiologia Plantarum 56, 295–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vásquez-Yanes, C. and Orozco-Segovia, A. (1993) Patterns of seed longevity and germination in the tropical rainforest. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 24, 69–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Teichman, I., Small, J.G.C. and Robbertse, P.J. (1986) A preliminary study on the germination of Sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra. South African Journal of Botany 52, 145–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warr, S.J., Thompson, K. and Kent, M. (1992) Antifungal activity in seed coat extracts of woodland plants. Oecologia 92, 296–298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Went, F.W. (1948) Ecology of desert plants. I. Observations on germination in the Joshua Tree National Monument, California. Ecology 29, 242–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Went, F.W. (1955) The ecology of desert plants. Scientific American 192(4), 68–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werker, E. (1997) Seed anatomy. Encyclopedia of plant anatomy; Bd. 10, Teil 3: Spezieller Teil. Berlin, Gebrüder Borntraeger.Google Scholar