Molecular mechanisms of seed dormancy Event

Abstract: Seed dormancy is one of the earliest developmental transitions in plant life cycle. It does not only allow the seeds to survive harsh external conditions but also to colonize new environments. Therefore plants have evolved elaborate mechanism of its regulation including DOG1, a dedicated seed dormancy regulator. DOG1 controls seed dormancy in natural Arabidopsis populations, and has been shown to contribute to seed dormancy in agronomically important plants. In my talk I will describe the biochemical mechanisms of DOG1 protein function and DOG1 protein molecular partners, providing the first explanation for how DOG1 controls seed dormancy. In addition DOG1 shows extensive variation of gene expression among natural Arabidopsis populations. We have shown that DOG1 expression is controlled by a non-canonical regulatory mechanism including a transcription elongation check point and a non-protein coding RNA transcript derived from DOG1 locus itself. Therefore the elucidation of molecular mode of DOG1 protein function and characterization of DOG1 expression regulation has not only helped to expose how plants control an important environmental transition – seed dormancy but also allowed us to propose novel gene expression regulation mechanisms.