Hormones in High Soil Temperatures Affects Seed Dormancy

"Dormant seeds in the soil detect and respond to seasonal changes in soil temperature by changing their sensitivity to plant hormones," reports a research paper by the University of Warwick, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers headed by Bill-Finch Savage and Steve Footitt have found that sets of genes related to dormancy and germination are highly sensitive to seasonal changes in soil temperature. Arabidopsis strains which germinate in late summer and early autumn when heated with warm soil becomes less sensitive to abscisic acid (ABA, hormone linked to dormancy) and sensitive to gibberellic acid (GA, hormone that promotes germination).

Footitt said that "the research sheds new light on how genetics and environment interact in the dormancy cycling process." He further added that "understanding how this happens will help us to predict the impact that future climate change will have on our native flora and the weeds that compete with the crops we rely on for food."

See the news at http://esciencenews.com/articles/2011/12/13/springs.rising.soil.temperatures.see.hormones.wake.seeds.
their.winter.slumber The research article at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/11/28/1116325108.full.pdf+html?with-ds=yes