The Evolution of Seed Dormancy: Adaptation May be as Old as the Seeds Themselves

First Posted: Nov 19, 2014 01:06 PM EST
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It turns out that seed dormancy is about as old as the seeds themselves. Scientists have taken a closer look at the evolution of seeds and have found a bit more about the intriguing phenomenon.

Seed dormancy does not simply mean that seeds do not germinate when it is too hot or too cold. What dormancy does do is make sure that the seeds themselves do not germinate even when conditions are favorable, which precludes germination after a summer storm, or during a few warm days in winter. And not all plants have dormant seeds; in fact, many species simply germinate at the moment when their seeds are exposed to favorable conditions.

What's interesting is that seed dormancy conditions the dynamics of natural vegetation and agricultural cycles. In fact, there are several types of dormancy, and some of them are modulated by environmental conditions in more subtle ways than others.

In order to better understand the evolution of seed dormancy, they used a unique data group. This group included the features of dormancy in more than 14,000 species.

So what did they find? The scientists established that dormancy is as old as the seeds themselves. In other words, the oldest among all seeds already had dormancy. This, in particular, suggests that plants without dormancy tend to be less capable of diversification.

"This can be due to the fact that dormancy facilitates that germination only takes place at the optimal moment, in spite of changes in the environment, due either to weather phenomena, or whether due to the fact that the seeds reach a new location after dispersal," said Rubio de Casas, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This adjustment of the plant cycle to the new environment can reduce the probability of a particular species to become extinct."

The findings reveal a bit more about dormancy and shows a bit more about plant evolution.

The findings are published in the journal New Phytologist.

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