Co-Authors:
Mazor, L., Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel
Negbi, M., Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel
Perl, M., Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel
Abstract:
Seeds of various species were treated with polyethyleneglycol in the absence or presence of AMP and phosphoenolpyruvate, redried and examined for ATP accumulation at the early stage of germination and for the rate of germination under suboptimal temperatures. The pretreatments resulted in seeds with various levels of accumulated ATP but in most comparative experiments no correlation was found between the ATP accumulation and the rate of germination. Similar pretreatments with naturally aged seeds led to the same conclusion. The fact that ATP accumulation is a result of ATP synthesis as well as ATP utilization was demonstrated by a protein inhibition experiment which showed a possibility to produce seeds with relatively high ATP accumulation levels at the early stage of germination, but with very low germination ability. © 1984 Oxford University Press.