Department of Plant Nutrition, CEBAS-CSIC, Campus de Espinardo, Murcia, Spain.
Plant Cell Physiol. 2012 Jan;53(1):5-15. doi: 10.1093/pcp/pcr112. Epub 2011 Aug 17.
Seeds provide food, feed, fiber and fuel. They are also an important delivery system of genetic information, which is essential for the survival of wild species in ecosystems and the production of agricultural crops. In this review, seed traits and genes that are potentially important for agricultural applications are discussed. Over the long period of crop domestication, seed traits have been modified through intentional or unintentional selections. While most selections have led to seed traits favorable for agricultural consumption, such as larger seeds with higher nutritional value than the wild type, other manipulations in modern breeding sometimes led to negative traits, such as vivipary, precocious germination on the maternal plant or reduced seed vigor, as a side effect during the improvement of other characteristics. Greater effort is needed to overcome these problems that have emerged as a consequence of crop improvement. Seed biology researchers have characterized the function of many genes in the last decade, including those associated with seed domestication, which may be useful in addressing critical issues in modern agriculture, such as the prevention of vivipary and seed shattering or the enhancement of yields. Recent discoveries in seed biology research are highlighted in this review, with an emphasis on their potential for translational biology.
种子提供了食物、饲料、纤维和燃料。它们也是遗传信息的重要传递系统，对于生态系统中野生物种的生存和农业作物的生产至关重要。在这篇综述中，讨论了潜在对农业应用重要的种子特性和基因。在作物驯化的漫长过程中，种子特性通过有意或无意的选择进行了改变。虽然大多数选择导致了有利于农业消费的种子特性，例如比野生型具有更高营养价值的更大种子，但现代育种中的其他操作有时会导致负面特性，例如胎生、在母体植物上过早发芽或种子活力降低，这是在改善其他特性的过程中产生的副作用。需要付出更大的努力来克服这些由于作物改良而出现的问题。在过去的十年中，种子生物学研究人员已经对许多基因的功能进行了描述，包括与种子驯化相关的基因，这些基因可能有助于解决现代农业中的关键问题，例如防止胎生和种子破碎或提高产量。本文重点介绍了种子生物学研究的最新发现，强调了它们在转化生物学中的潜在应用。
