Karrikin responses in Arabidopsis thaliana seed

Karrikins promote seed germination in Arabidopsis thaliana. Completion of germination (protrusion of the radicle) is not observed until ~72 h in dormant wildtype seed under these conditions. We used microarrays to examine karrikin-induced transcriptional changes after 24 h of imbibition. Transcriptional changes may indicate events leading to karrikin-induced germination or karrikin-specific markers. Primary dormant seed of wildtype (which can germinate and is promoted by KAR1) and ga1-3 (which cannot germinate, and is not promoted by KAR1) were imbibed on water-agar or 1 uM KAR1 in the light at 20 C and assayed for gene expression after 24 h. Three or four biological replicates per genotype/treatment.