Figure 8.

Aleurone cells vacuolate in seeds that germinate. Mildly dormant C24 Arabidopsis seeds were imbibed in water (A) or exposed to 10 μm NaN₃ (B), and the number of PSV per aleurone cell was determined. Most of the seeds in A were dormant, but some were not and germinated by 96 h. All of the seeds in B germinated by 96 h. White and black symbols represent the aleurone layer adjacent to the root/hypocotyl and cotyledons, respectively. Note that vacuolation of aleurone cells was tightly correlated with dormancy loss.