Dormancy heterogeneity among Arabidopsis thalianaseeds is linked to individual seed size

Autor: Krzyszton, Michal, Sacharowski, Sebastian P., Manjunath, Veena Halale, Muter, Katarzyna, Bokota, Grzegorz, Wang, Ce, Plewczyński, Dariusz, Dobisova, Tereza, Swiezewski, Szymon
Zdroj: Plant Communications; February 2024, Vol. 5 Issue: 2
Abstrakt: Production of morphologically and physiologically variable seeds is an important strategy that helps plants to survive in unpredictable natural conditions. However, the model plant Arabidopsis thalianaand most agronomically essential crops produce visually homogenous seeds. Using automated phenotype analysis, we observed that small seeds in Arabidopsis tend to have higher primary and secondary dormancy levels than large seeds. Transcriptomic analysis revealed distinct gene expression profiles between large and small seeds. Large seeds have higher expression of translation-related genes implicated in germination competence. By contrast, small seeds have elevated expression of many positive regulators of dormancy, including a key regulator of this process, the DOG1gene. Differences in DOG1expression are associated with differential production of its alternative cleavage and polyadenylation isoforms; in small seeds, the proximal poly(A) site is selected, resulting in a short mRNA isoform. Furthermore, single-seed RNA sequencing analysis demonstrated that large seeds resemble DOG1knockout mutant seeds. Finally, on the single-seed level, expression of genes affected by seed size is correlated with expression of genes that position seeds on the path toward germination. Our results demonstrate an unexpected link between seed size and dormancy phenotypes in a species that produces highly homogenous seed pools, suggesting that the correlation between seed morphology and physiology is more widespread than initially assumed.
Databáze: Supplemental Index