Anaerobic conditions improve germination of a gibberellic acid deficient rice

Abstract

Dwarf plants are useful in research because multiple plants can be grown in a small area. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is especially important since its relatively simple genome has recently been sequenced. We are characterizing a gibberellic acid (GA) mutant of rice (japonica cv 'Shiokari,' line N-71) that is extremely dwarf (20 cm tall). Unfortunately, this GA mutation is associated with poor germination (70%) under aerobic conditions. Neither exogenous GA nor a dormancy-breaking heat treatment improved germination. However, 95% germination was achieved by germinating the seeds anaerobically, either in a pure N2 environment or submerged in unstirred tap water. The anaerobic conditions appear to break a mild post-harvest dormancy in this rice cultivar.

MiniMax, a new diminutive Glycine max genotype with a rapid life cycle, embryogenic potential and transformation capabilities

“…The transformability and diminutive nature of MiniMax make it possible to test the function of large numbers of genes in a relatively small amount of space compared to other G. max varieties. These (Meissner et al 1997(Meissner et al , 2000Frantz and Bugbee 2004;Sun et al 2006;Orzaez et al 2006).…”