Phytochrome-mediated accumulation of free amino acids in embryonic axes of New York lettuce seeds.
Red light given to New York lettuce seeds incubated on a 0.3 m mannitol solution increased the amount of free amino acids in the embryonic axes, far-red light reversed this effect. Germination in response to red light given at various times during imbibition was closely related to the amount of free amino acids accumulated in the axes in response to the red light. The analyses of the free amino acids that accumulated in the axes of seeds incubated on 0.3 m mannitol indicated that the free amino acids that accumulated on red-light irradiation were produced by the degradation of storage protein. This is evidence that red-light-increased germination may be caused by the accumulation of free amino acids in the embryonic axes of New York lettuce seeds.
Laboratory of Applied Biology, Faculty of Living Science, Kyoto Prefetcural University, Kyoto 606, Japan.
G
G
Takeba
Dormancy; Lettuce; Osmotic substance; Phytochrome; Seed germination