Poster Presentation ANZSCDB National Scientific Meeting 2019

Analysing aquaporin roles in seed development and germination (#Poster 17)

Hoai T. T. Phan 1 , Caitlin S. Byrt 2
  1. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Campus The University of Adelaide, Urrbrea , South Australia, Australia
  2. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis, Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Acton, ACT, 2601 , Australia

Seeds are the typical dispersal and propagation units of angiosperms and gymnosperms. Water movement into and out of seed play a crucial role from the point of fertilization through to imbibition and seed germination. In plants, water movement also relates to the movement of other assimilates and it may be assisted by water channel proteins called aquaporins. Aquaporins are membrane intrinsic proteins which facilitate the rapid movement of solutes in response to osmotic gradients across cell membranes. Previous studies revealed a high abundance of TIP1-type and TIP3;1-type aquaporins in mature seeds of Arabidopsis and barley (Hordeum vulgare); however, there are likely to be other aquaporins involved in different processes that are important during seed development, and during seed imbibition and germination. Here we investigate water influx and efflux during seed development and imbibition; and explore which aquaporins are candidates for being important in Arabidopsis seeds based on analysing transcript data. The results indicated that PIPs, such as AtPIP1;5, AtPIP2;2/AtPIP2;3, AtPIP2;7/AtPIP2;8may have the roles in seed imbibition and germination.