CHANGING SENSITIVITY TO LIGHT AND NITRATE BUT NOT TO GIBBERELLINS REGULATES SEASONAL DORMANCY PATTERNS IN SISYMBRIUM-OFFICINALE SEEDS

Seeds of Sisymbrium officinale (L.) Scop. that are buried under natural conditions in soil pass annually through a seasonal pattern of changes in dormancy. Dormancy is broken in autumn-winter and re-induced in summer. To elucidate dormancy regulation in this species under natural conditions, a detailed analysis of the changes in sensitivity to some relevant germination factors was carried out. Germination data fitted as logistic dose response curves showed that sensitivity to light and nitrate, both indispensable stimuli for germination of this species, varied with the seasons. Patterns of shifts in requirement for light and nitrate were remarkably similar. Sensitivity increased when both primary and secondary dormancy were alleviated, and it was reversed during induction of secondary dormancy. During alleviation of primary dormancy in spring 1991, the fluence response curves exhibited a biphasic character with responses occurring both in the very-low-fluence-range and in the low-fluence-range. The nitrate dose response data could all be fitted as monophasic curves, although responses might have occurred in two distinct ranges as well. From interpretation of curve parameters, it is postulated that dormancy is regulated by changes in the number of phytochrome and nitrate receptors, in shifts in the binding characteristics of the receptors and/or in shifts in the response chain initiated by the ligand-receptor interaction. Somewhere in this response chain, biosynthesis of gibberellins (GAs) is stimulated. By use of the GA biosynthesis inhibitor tetcyclasis, it was indirectly proven that the capacity to synthesize GAs indeed varied with the seasons. Sensitivity to GAs gradually increased from burial onwards and was not particularly related to changes in dormancy. Thus, except for the first few months of burial, GA sensitivity may not be regarded as a limiting factor in controlling dormancy in this species.