Respiration and Protein Synthesis in Dormant and After-ripened Seeds of Avena fatua.

Dormant seeds of Avena fatua, which do not germinate when allowed to imbibe water, have a respiration rate only about 20% less than that of imbibed nondormant (after-ripened) seeds in the period before actual germination and are capable of synthesizing protein at a rate comparable to that of the nondormant seeds. An increase of protein synthesis is observed in nondormant seeds at the beginning of root protrusion. Autoradiography of seeds administered (3)H-leucine shows that protein synthesis occurs in the axis part of the embryo, the scutellum, the coleorhiza, and the aleurone layer. Dormancy in seeds is not a state of general inactivity; rather, it must be due to some specific metabolic block.