Interspecific variations in seed germination and seedling emergence of three Setaria species

Abstract

Setaria glauca (L.) Beauv., Setaria verticillata (L.) P. Beauv., and Setaria viridis (L.) P. Beauv. are summer annuals and problematic weeds of many annual and perennial summer crops and orchards in the north of Iran. There is no information about interspecific variations in responses to environmental factors. In this study, interspecific variations of the Setaria in response to temperature in light/dark and complete darkness regimes, pH, salt and osmotic stress, and seed sowing depth in the laboratory and greenhouse experiments were investigated. The optimum temperature of S. viridis and S. verticillata seed germination was 25/15°C in light/dark regime, while germination of S. glauca at 20°C was the maximum in both light/dark and complete darkness regimes. The maximum germination of the Setaria occurred at pH 7 (41-48 %) and no seed germinated at pH 11. S. verticillata and S. viridis were moderately tolerant to salt and osmotic stress, but S. glauca was more tolerant to higher levels of stress. The maximum seedling emergence occurred when the seeds were planted on the soil surface (88-94 %) and decreased as sowing depth increased. Seedling emergence of S. verticillata and S. viridis reached zero at depths of 6 cm, while 12.11 % of S. glauca seedlings emerged at a depth of 8 cm.

Genomic characterization and expression analysis of TCP transcription factors in Setaria italica and Setaria viridis

“… 20 , 24 , 25 , 29 , 39 , 40 Since S. italica is drought and salinity tolerant, whether SiTCP genes respond to abiotic stresses was still obscure. 41 In the study, the expression level of SiTCP genes under short-term drought and salinity treatment was analyzed. Nine SiTCP genes ( SiTCP2/3 / 4 /5/9/ 12 /13/14/ 19 ) were downregulated under stress conditions.…”

Effect of Physical Treatments on the Promotion of Seed Germination in Green and Giant Foxtails

“…In general, the storage of Setaria seeds in the dark under refrigerated conditions is effective for breaking their dormancy (Amini et al, 2015a;Acharya et al, 2017). However, this treatment requires several months for inducing germination (Sebastian et al, 2014).…”

Optimization of Phenotyping Assays for the Model Monocot Setaria viridis

“…Several studies have reported on different aspects of seed germination in Setaria, including comparisons between different accessions or species, interspecies comparison of germination efficiencies and the effects of different environmental conditions on seed germination ( Manthey and Nalewaja, 1987 ; Dekker and Hargrove, 2002 ; Liu et al, 2003 , 2017 ; Mauro-Herrera et al, 2013 ; Sebastian et al, 2014 ; Amini et al, 2015a , b ; Shu et al, 2015 ; Saha and Blumwald, 2016 ; Saha et al, 2016 ; Hodge and Doust, 2017 ). Assays have also been developed for germination on synthetic media plates under controlled conditions and genetic basis of seed germination efficiency has been explored ( Mauro-Herrera et al, 2013 ; Qie et al, 2014 ; Sebastian et al, 2014 ; Muthamilarasan et al, 2015 ; Feng et al, 2016 ; Feldman et al, 2017 ; Huang et al, 2017 ; Liu et al, 2017 ); all with the aim of effectively breaking the seed dormancy, which remains a major problem in Setaria.…”