Environmental contamination with arsenic (As) is a global environmental, agricultural and
health issue due to the highly toxic and carcinogenic nature of As. Exposure of plants to As …

Key message The potential of seed priming is still not fully exploited. Our limited knowledge
of the molecular dynamics of seed pre-germinative metabolism is the main hindrance to …

Hydrogen peroxide was initially recognized as a toxic molecule that causes damage at
different levels of cell organization and thus losses in cell viability. From the 1990s, the role …

Seed viability is an important trait in agriculture which directly influences seedling
emergence and crop yield. However, even when stored under optimal conditions, all seeds …

Mature seeds are an ultimate physiological status that enables plants to endure extreme
conditions such as high and low temperature, freezing and desiccation. Seed longevity, the …

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” …

Seeds are an important life cycle stage because they guarantee plant survival in
unfavorable environmental conditions and the transfer of genetic information from parents to …

Seed persistence is the survival of seeds in the environment once they have reached
maturity. Seed persistence allows a species, population or genotype to survive long after the …

Most plant seeds are dispersed in a dry, mature state. If these seeds are non-dormant and
the environmental conditions are favourable, they will pass through the complex process of …

Stress factors provoke enhanced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants.
ROS that escape antioxidant-mediated scavenging/detoxification react with biomolecules …