In the coming decades, maintaining a steady food supply for the increasing world population
will require high-yielding crop plants which can be productive under increasingly variable …

The molecular machinery that enables life has evolved in water, yet many of the organisms
around us are able to survive even extreme desiccation. Especially remarkable are single …

Effective seed storage after sourcing (harvesting or purchasing) is critical to restoration
practitioners and native seed producers, as it is key to maintaining seed viability. Inadequate …

Besides the deposition of storage reserves, seed maturation is characterized by the
acquisition of functional traits including germination, desiccation tolerance, dormancy, and …

Germination vigor is driven by the ability of the plant embryo, embedded within the seed, to
resume its metabolic activity in a coordinated and sequential manner. Studies using “-omics” …

The lifespan or longevity of a seed is the time period over which it can remain viable. Seed
longevity is a complex trait and varies greatly between species and even seed lots of the …

From a biomechanical perspective, the completion of seed (and fruit) germination depends
on the balance of two opposing forces: the growth potential of the embryonic axis (radicle …

Upon storage, seeds inevitably age and lose their viability over time, which determines their
longevity. Longevity correlates with successful seed germination and enhancing this trait is …

Main conclusion Discrete categories of seed physiology can be explained through a unified
concept of the structural and molecular mobility responses within cells to drying. Tolerance …

Seed deterioration is a partially elucidated phenomenon that happen during the life of the
seed. This review describes the processes that lead to seed deterioration, including loss of …