Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2024, Vol. 59 ›› Issue (3): 355-372.DOI: 10.11983/CBB24006

• INVITED REVIEW • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Indispensable Material for Germination: Long-lived mRNAs of Plant Seed

Xiaobo Zhu1,2, Zhang Dong1,2, Mengjin Zhu1,2, Jin Hu1,2, Cheng Lin3, Min Chen2, Yajing Guan1,2,*()   

  1. 1Hainan Institute, Zhejiang University, Sanya 572000, China
    2The Advanced Seed Institute, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    3Suzhou Polytechnic Institute of Agriculture, Suzhou 215008, China
  • Received:2024-01-10 Accepted:2024-03-30 Online:2024-05-01 Published:2024-05-08
  • Contact: E-mail: vcguan@zju.edu.cn

Abstract: Higher plants usually start from seed germination and re-form seeds after vegetative growth and reproductive development, thus completing the life cycle. Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, mRNA and other macromolecular substances accumulated in seeds are crucial to maintain the germination potential of seeds, some of mRNA can be preserved for a long time without degradation, known as long-lived mRNA. In rice, long-lived mRNA associated with germination began to be transcribed and accumulated 10 to 20 days after flowering, and some long-lived mRNA associated with dormancy and stress response were transcribed and preserved in cells from 20 days after flowering to seed maturity. There are many kinds of long-lived mRNA, mainly including some protein synthesis mRNA, energy metabolism mRNA, cytoskeleton mRNA and some stress response related mRNA, such as small heat shock protein, LEA (late embryogenesis abundant) family proteins. Transcriptomic analysis found that the promoter regions of many genes contain ABA- or GA-associated cis-acting elements, and there are about 500 differentially expressed long-lived mRNAs in the Arabidopsis atabi5 (ABA-insensitive 5) mutant seeds that differ from the wild type, suggesting that abscisic acid (ABA) and gibberellin (GA) are the key hormones that influence the type of long-lived mRNA. Long-lived mRNAs are usually cross-linked with a single ribosome, RNA binding protein, which exists in cells in the form of P-bodies (PBs) to protect the mRNA from degradation. However, long-lived mRNAs associated with seed dormancy are gradually degraded during seed post-ripening, and the oxidative modification of some specific long-lived mRNAs is also a biological phenomenon to break seed dormancy. During the long-term storage of seeds, the random degradation of long-lived mRNA is directly related to the life and vitality of seeds, and the retained mRNA is translated into protein to help the rapid germination of seeds in the early stage of imbibition. In this paper, the characteristics and functions of long-lived mRNA are reviewed, and some future scientific issues are discussed to provide a reference for further understanding of the molecular mechanisms of seed dormancy, germination and longevity.

Key words: long-lived mRNAs, seed dormancy, seed germination, seed storage