Advances in Studies on Molecular Biology of Seed Dormancy and Germination

Seed dormancy and germination are complex adaptive traits of plants influenced by a large number of genes and environmental factors. The use of quantitative genetics (QTL analysis) and mutant approaches has allowed further genetic studies on seed dormancy and germination characteristics. Recently, following the rapid development of molecular biology, researches on this field are deepening into molecular level. Molecular biology techniques, especially gene expression, genome and proteome analyses based on two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, are useful approaches for the analysis of mechanism of seed dormancy and germination. This paper briefly summaried the advances on the application of molecular biology technology in studies of seed dormancy and germination.