Gene expression in dormant, germinating and thermoinhibited Arabidopsis seeds

To establish the basis for understanding molecular mechanism of seed germination response to temperature, we analyzed transcriptomes in freshly harvested dormant and dry stored after-ripened seeds. The after-ripened seeds started to show visible germination from 36h after the start of imbibition, and almost all the seeds germinated after 3 days. The freshly harvested seeds stayed dormant by imbibition at 26°C, and germination of the after-ripened seeds was almost completely inhibited at 34°C. Total RNA was prepared from 0 (dry), 6 and 24h imbibed seeds to find regulatory genes of seed dormancy and germination. Transcriptomes in Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 dormant seeds (imbibed at 26°C ) and after-ripened seeds (imbibed at 26°C and 34°C) were analyzed at 0, 6 and 24 hours after imbibition. Three independent experiments were performed at each time point using different seed batches for each experiment.