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JXB Advance Access published online on April 29, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/ern089
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© The Author [2008]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

RESEARCH PAPER

Release of sunflower seed dormancy by cyanide: cross-talk with ethylene signalling pathway

Krystyna Oracz1,2, Hayat El-Maarouf-Bouteau1, Renata Bogatek2, Françoise Corbineau1 and Christophe Bailly1,*

1UPMC Université Paris 06, EA2388, Physiologie des semences, Site d'Ivry, Boîte courrier 152, 4 Place Jussieu, F-75005 Paris, France
2Department of Plant Physiology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Nowoursynowska 159, 02–776, Warsaw, Poland

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bailly{at}ccr.jussieu.fr

Freshly harvested sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) seeds are considered to be dormant because they fail to germinate at relatively low temperatures (10 °C). This dormancy results mainly from an embryo dormancy and disappears during dry storage. Although endogenous ethylene is known to be involved in sunflower seed alleviation of dormancy, little attention had been paid to the possible role of cyanide, which is produced by the conversion of 1-aminocyclopropane 1-carboxylic acid to ethylene, in this process. The aims of this work were to investigate whether exogenous cyanide could improve the germination of dormant sunflower seeds and to elucidate its putative mechanisms of action. Naked dormant seeds became able to germinate at 10 °C when they were incubated in the presence of 1 mM gaseous cyanide. Other respiratory inhibitors showed that this effect did not result from an activation of the pentose phosphate pathway or the cyanide-insensitive pathway. Cyanide stimulated germination of dormant seeds in the presence of inhibitors of ethylene biosynthesis, but its improving effect required functional ethylene receptors. It did not significantly affect ethylene production and the expression of genes involved in ethylene biosynthesis or in the first steps of ethylene signalling pathway. However, the expression of the transcription factor Ethylene Response Factor 1 (ERF1) was markedly stimulated in the presence of gaseous cyanide. It is proposed that the mode of action of cyanide in sunflower seed dormancy alleviation does not involve ethylene production and that ERF1 is a common component of the ethylene and cyanide signalling pathways.

Key words: Cyanide, dormancy, ethylene, germination, Helianthus annuus L. (sunflower)

Received 21 January 2008; Revised 29 February 2008 Accepted 4 March 2008


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