A Raf-like kinase is required for smoke-induced seed dormancy in .

Plants sense and integrate diverse stimuli to determine the timing for germination. A smoke compound, 3,4,5-trimethylfuran-2()-one (trimethylbutenolide, TMB), has been identified to inhibit the seed germination of higher plants. To understand the mode of action, we examined various physiological and molecular aspects of the TMB-dependent inhibition of seed germination in The results indicated that the effect of TMB is due to the enhanced physiological dormancy, which is modulated by other dormancy regulatory cues such as after-ripening, stratification, and ABA/GA signaling. In addition, gene expression profiling showed that TMB caused genome-wide transcriptional changes, altering the expression of a series of dormancy-related genes. Based on the TMB-responsive physiological contexts in , we performed mutant screening to isolate genetic components that underpin the TMB-induced seed dormancy. As a result, the () gene in , encoding a B2 group Raf-like kinase, was identified. Phenotypic analysis of the mutant implicated that has a critical role in the TMB-responsive gene expression and the inhibition of seed germination. Taken together, we propose that plants have been equipped with a TMB sensory pathway through which the TMB induces the seed dormancy in a TES1-dependent way.