Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Minutes of the ASRA (W-2168) Annual Meeting July 8-11, 2010: 8:35 am call to order by Bruce Downie followed by introductions of participants. Downie continued with statement to members outlining accomplishments that included: 1) selecting a name for W-2168 group that would not change with every re-write of the project, American Seed Research Alliance was the selected name; 2) setting up a group webpage; and 3) submitting an NSF Research Coordination grant. The grant was not funded. This highlights need to obtain other sources of funding that include collaborations with other groups. Also, try to liaise with ASTA to leverage federal funds. After the statement Downie sought approval of minutes; 1st and 2nd motions for approval of minutes by Bradford and Bennett, respectively. Mark Bennett and Hector Pérez were selected as new President and Vice-President, respectively. Kent Bradford and Marc Cohn were appointed to the Secretary Nomination committee. Downie re-iterated need to email state reports, using SAES-422 format, and minutes to him. Taylor, Bennett, and Pérez were appointed to Host Site Selection committee. Downie opened the floor to discussion of special topics from membership. Bradford requested time on Saturday to discuss ASTA request for input on topics to present to Roger Beachy (USDA-AFRI). Bradford suggested an ASRA summit sponsored by ASTA and creation of a bulleted list of seed-related items. General consensus among members that ASRA should have some input and provide feedback on agenda related to seed research at federal level. Cohn described challenges in building collaborations due to diversity of mandates and interests among members. Moving forward a unifying theme could be the need to perpetuate the species of seed scientists since general lack of awareness of people who know seeds as propagules. Focusing on seeds as propagules allows for wide interests. Bishnoi suggested seeds are integral to a diversity of new research areas from crop biofuels to medicinal plants and these may be areas to focus on. Moreover, it is important to include minorities in collaborations. 1890 schools are rich in minorities and faculty with interests in seed biology and should be considered for partnerships. 9am Welcome and Introductory remarks from Doug Buhler MSU Introductory remarks focused on: need to define role/expectations of ASRA, finding commonality and building collaborative research projects (e.g., NCDC has committee specifically to write grants; strength in the multi-state system), name of group can be considered as a brand, focus on asking what can we do specifically to match our needs. Buhlers presentation focused on state of MSU Ag experiment station and opportunities. Questions from the members revolved around how to keep seed science alive in the face of mergers and budget cuts, issues with distribution of appointments among units, and replacement of Dr. Copelands position and diversion of resources to teach more about seeds. Buhler  Dr. Copelands position will not be refilled. Positions are in danger of budget axe, but opportunities exist to link funding with contemporary issues. Look at cluster hires and find out if seed science can participate. Major problem revolves around not finding qualified people to fill positions. Need to hire the best then give them time to develop. Innovation is required. Reorganization can present more challenges than opportunities. There are costs associated with mergers that can take a decade to smooth out (e.g., lost grants and publications). MSU tries to be strategic with distribution of appointments. Administration views experiment station as a major piece of the university. However, big budgetary changes make deans nervous. As voted by members, floor opened for discussion of special topics for 1 hr. Leskovar reported upcoming ISHS meeting with a session emphasizing seeds transplants and stand establishment to occur in Brazil in 2012; Welbaum announced seminar/symposia on relationships between seeds and seed microbes planned for ASHS meeting in Portugal on Aug, 20-26th. Focus of discussion was on potential funding sources for ASRA. A recurring theme was the need for seed education at all levels. Pérez suggested looking in NSF GK-12 funding mechanism as this has the dual purpose of grad student funding and potential for seed biology education projects; Downie suggested USDA-National Needs program as another potential funding mechanism, grad students receive training by seed biology faculty; Bradford mentioned project in the wheat community that trains cohorts at different institutions, each institution interacts, perhaps this could serve as a model for ASRA funding efforts, emphasized need to make a case on importance of seeds to those that make priorities; Welbaum discussed published review on distance learning in seed biology found in Seed Technology, Agronomy Newsletter and New Seeds, need to consider integrating distance learning in education projects, but this can be affected by retirements. Bradford/Downie/Cohn/Geneve/Bisnoi discussed creation of a center of excellence in seeds, further discussion would be carried out during break. Cohn emphasized need to focus on fundamentals of seed biology then the flavor du jour can be added (e.g., biofuels) to market an agenda. Concern was expressed about departments only funding in high priority areas without interaction of seed person and tenure issues with difficulty in obtaining funds, this highlights the need for collaboration. An international component would strengthen the project. Geneve/Taylor/Downie discussed opportunities and challenges with the USDA-SCRI funding mechanism and questioned whether it would be the right mechanisms for such a diverse group. Pérez questioned if it would make sense to have Feds consider seeds as a specialty crop, perhaps including the suggestion as one important bullet point to ASTA and AFRI. Lemaux/Bradford discussed efforts on submitting a Seed CAP grant, challenges associated with CAP grants revolve around focus on one crop, this funding mechanism must include a research, education, and outreach component, perhaps need to stay clear of controversial topics, USDA concerned with how much has been invested with few current examples. Taylor/Geneve/Leskovar/Bradford shifted back to SCRI, mechanism sounds interesting, but foresee difficulty including members under same umbrella, industry buy-in is critical, a 50% match is required, huge amount of effort to develop a grant for this mechanism. Break 10:35am Resume 11:00am Downie/Rachael Naegele (McGrath grad student)/Geneve discussed National Ag in the Classroom as a means to increase seed biology awareness and as a possible addition to ASRA education grant opportunities, Ag in the Classroom is already established in every state, ready resources that can be made use of and improved, ASRA should identify Ag in the Classroom representatives in each state, provides good framework for collaboration. Bradford/Bishnoi/ Cohn discussed opportunities and current successes with USAID and HortCRSP projects, membership may consider these as funding mechanisms, need to target developing countries, major emphasis on poverty alleviation and African and South Asian countries, website for CRSP project is www.hortcrsp.ucdavis.edu. State Reports Dr. Peng  looking for collaboration opportunities, Epigenetic control rice seed grain filling how it affects nutrition; lab works on proteomics; willing to collaborate on protein identification; working on biomass crops to identify proteins seeking collaboration. Questions: Bradford- storage proteins more enriched, what stage of development? Reply: will still get enriched, not every cell highly expressed, very early stage of seeds about 6d. Cohn  this would be a good control, test later in development; Peng  starch accumulation later in development a challenge. Dr. Pérez  research program focused on seed development, dormancy and germination ecology; 2 peer-reviewed publications for 2009; 6 conference proceedings 3 with grad student as first author; 2 national presentations, 1 with grad student as lead author; 5 regional presentations 2 with grad student as lead; in 2010 3 publications 1 with grad student as lead author; expect another 3 in 2010; 2 conference proceedings, 1 international presentation and 2 regional presentations; seeking advice on starting seed technology program. Questions: Geneve has the role of fire been investigated in terms of dormancy relief? Reply No. Cohn  what are the colors of seeds at dispersal? Reply  We have identified 2 color morphs at dispersal 12:10pm lunch; Resume 1:15pm Dr. Copeland  described book published in 2008 dealing with up-to-date taxonomy of seeds from numerous species; following up this effort with a seed ID website that will be hosted by MSU; website will contain color photos; author seeks photos and input. Also, working on new book titled Principles and Practices of Seed Testing. Downie/Lemaux/Bradford had questions regarding including a scale with photos, interest in SEM pictures and inclusion of dichotomous keys. Replies: including a ruler with image is fine, need to include magnification; welcome good quality SEM pictures; dozens of keys used in book. Dr. Cohn - exploring recalcitrant seed death with Spartina model systems; lipid oxidation spikes, antioxidant stays high until peak of lipid peroxidation, antioxidant pool being depleted, as antioxidant depleted increase in protein carbonylation, increases dramatically after CWC, not correct; what is the control for drying recalcitrant seeds? Do same rxns occur in orthodox seeds? DNA fragmentation does not occur as S. alterniflora is desiccated, but let them sit for time and DNA fragmentation occurs, may be post-mortem effect, little bit of moisture may facilitate fragmentation, do seeds die during drying or on rewetting? 2D gels 54 protein differences, hope to identify some putative gene products, molecular probe stains, a 24 kDa protein in dried S. pectinata (orthodox) not found in dried S. alterniflora, dormancy proteomics in Spartina: 61 protein spots differ during cold differentiation. No change in CWC in relation to drying temperature. Bisnoi/Pérez asked about independence biochemical reactions and seed death and potential lack of dry matter accumulation as factor in recalcitrance. Reply: increase in TBARS in orthodox and recalcitrant species can be an artifact; have not investigated dry matter accumulation. Dr. Bradford  compositae genome project (NSF funded), gone to 15k map locations, have several markers for lettuce, about half genes on map, main focus on new project to develop common inbred line of high temperature tolerance; Can do transciptome analysis, weighted correlation network analysis takes all data stores in modules that co-expressed and behave more or less similarly; Cohn - when discriminating filter is removed how do maps link change? e.g. from 5 to 10%; Bradford  it is sensitive to those limits; are proteins from both alleles functional? Knock outs of LsNCED4 tilling mutants; functional test for seed thermoinhibition with Salinas LsNCED4 promoter and coding region transformed to UC96US23; Astec Q2 machine continues to be improved; Improved seed storage (HortCRSP), zeolite a new form of desiccant, can go through repeated drying cycles and still be effective, make very simple seed storage system for low volume users in developing areas; Cohn  can it be scaled? Bradford  yes; Seed Biotechnology Center staff is expanding, Seed Biology Production and Quality, PBA Class II started 2nd branch in Europe, curriculum Delphi study to develop a curriculum in plant breeding what do plant breeders need to know today? What do they need to know for industry? SEED School educate new seed industry employees in a five day course; Bradford/Downie  Pepper chip has been developed, available for researchers; Gu  any ABA linkage? Bradford  hope to get there, trying to look at promoters perhaps one sensitive to temperature the other not to track back to temp signal. Cohn  in light of ABA receptor components have you gone back over data, Bradford  there are some homologues, have not done any real work with it. One component may be related to dormancy. Misra  suggestions for next step using wet and dry soybean seed as wet seed loses and dry seeds pick up moisture; Bradford  need to kill seeds, problem 80% RH 40C seeds cant dry, cant use ambient air to get dry seeds need to heat them, but would kill them; Misra  use dry grain as desiccant; Bradford  seed drying system needs to be closed system. Dr. Lemaux  Barley with improved malting quality, wheat with improved dough quality and reduced allerginity; thioredoxin as redox sensor, engineered barley to overexpress thioredoxin h in protein bodies of the endosperm, by overexpressing thioredoxin could increase pullulanse activity and germinate 1 d earlier; Chinese collaborators looked at consequences of silencing trxh to delay germination (pre-sprouting), most dramatic effect on pre-harvest sprouting, trxh linked to scarecrow promoter expression limited to a single cell layer in root, GFP moves throughout the root this particular thioredoxin is a communicator of redox status in seeds, Trxh9 is mobile suggests role in cell-to-cell communication. Cohn  is preharvest sprouting in one variety? Lemaux  found in 3 different Chinese varieties. Cohn to group  preharvest sprouting before maturation drying? Group no; with climate change more preharvest sprouting; Gu  how difficult to transform wheat; Lemaux  difficult to do, can be done with agrobacterium, less difficult with bombardment, dont want to get rid of all trx; Unidentified grad student  all stocks publically available? Lemaux  need to contact people in China, its difficult moving plant materials between countries especially GMOs, this works in the field; Bradford  problem with white wheat can grow it but too risky due to possible pre-harvest sprouting; Gu  preharvest sprouting in northern great plains; Misra  happens in seed corn too, not able to get funding due to intellectual property issues, how to get funding look at it for productive seed get male and female to germinate at same time; Downie  At trxh travelling, look at GFP in endosperm? Lemaux  no. Dr. Gu  progress on seed dormancy in rice and wheat, comparative genetics of seed dormancy between tropical and temperate ecotypes of weedy rice, divergence in seed dormancy between weedy rice and cultivars; during domestication 80% of dormancy genes eliminated, qtl clusters provide suggested coevolution/adaptation of weedy traits; map based cloning of qSD7-1affects pericarp color, high ABA content but decreases later in development, SD7-1 controls dormancy and pericarp color by switching on/off other gene traits, what else regulated by this gene, detected 5 genes involved in pericarp color, conserved seed dormancy function among structurally different alleles, Mapping seed dormancy QTLs in wheat, 11 putative seed dormancy QTLs detected from a DH population; Cohn  temporal processes come into play when seeds are dormant from the time they are viable 7-10d coincides with ABA peak, seeds are green, red coloration comes much later in development, dormancy there before red pigment is there; Bradford  loss of dormancy genes? Gu  pleiotropic effect one gene controls multiple functions; Unidentified grad student  red pigment controlled by single gene? Gu  natural variation controlled by single gene retain white allele; Grad student  3 red genes control color? Gu  wheat 3 pairs of genomes rice diploid; Misra  rice take lots of water to grow how to connect water use of rice? Look at rice that will germinate with less water or evapotransporative consumption. Gu  why weedy rice so popular in rice growing areas, red color type more successful to colonize areas. Cohn  is mutant SD7-1 w/ red pericarp display seed shattering? Gu  dormancy phenotype separate from shattering. Dr. Downie  Seed Biology Group at UK; Baskins had numerous publications in 2009 and will be presenting a seed ecology workshop in New Caledonia during 2010; Downie submitted NSF Research Coordination Grant, expanded membership of ASRA, developed ASRA website; Sharyn Perry had two publications and received two grants. Dr. Welbaum  IHC Science and Horticulture for People seminar molecular profiling of microbial communities associated with seeds (Aug 22-27th 2010), screen Cucurbit germplasm for HGR to effectors in Agrobacterium, bacterial pathogens that affect human health role on seeds, using DGGE for whole populations on seeds, some bacteria present on the seed get carried on leaves as plants develop in the field, can production area be correlated to bacterial species? Soil priming using disaccharide solution added different concentration of sugars, bacteria in soil that produce glucose based polymer together increases water holding capacity, wont have affect with sterilized soil. Cohn  have any other lots been tested? Welbaum  two lots worked 20 did not; Group response  need inoculate media; Taylor  set up to do taxonomy work? Welbaum  did sequencing have tons of data that need to be worked through, been limited by what can be cultured; Taylor  all relatively benign to seed? Welbaum  looking for antagonists that can inhibit other bacteria; Bennett  looking at sprouts? Welbaum  yes; Bennett  very little is known huge differences in species that would show up; Bradford  seed industry trying to avoid that E. coli can be promulgated by seeds; Bradford  a paper where they inoculated seeds very heavily and some could be found on young leaves. Misra  how are seed courses? Welbaum  students from other campuses taking seed classes, undergrad seed course about 15 students every spring Membership voted to reconvene at 8am on Saturday. Discussion by Taylor/Bennett and group on where/when to hold next meeting; larger membership should be polled, but this time seems to work for most; look to increase diversity of group (e.g. more 1890s) at next meeting. Bennett made motion to hold meeting same time next year, 2nd by Misra. Meeting adjourned 5:35pm. W-2168_ASRA annual meeting minutes -- Kellogg Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI July 9-10th, 2010. SATURDAY In attendance: Zhachua Peng, Mississippi State University, Udai Bishnoi, Alabama A and M University, Peggy Lemeaux, Univ. California Berkeley, Daniel Leskovar, Texas A and M University, Bruce Downie, University of Kentucky, Marc Cohn, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Kent Bradford, Univ. California Davis, Greg Welbaum, Virginia Tech University, Mitch McGrath, Michigan State University-USDA, Xingyou Gu, South Dakota State University, Marc Bennett, The Ohio State University, Bob Geneve, University of Kentucky, Alan Taylor, Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, Manjit Mishra, Iowa State University. Student: Yuanjie Su - MSU grad student with Janet Lewis, Crop and Soil Science. Yuanjie is interested in breeding wheat. Not present Saturday but present Friday: Hector Pérez, University of Florida, Guests: Larry Copeland and Doug Buhler Students: Rachel Naegele - MSU grad student with Mitch McGrath, MSU-USDA. Rachel is interested in seedling vigor. Prannda Sharma - Eastern Michigan University doing a summer internship with Mitch McGrath, MSU-USDA. Prannda is interested in cell walls. Reconvene Saturday morning at 8:15. Marc Bennett, Daniel Leskovar, Robert Geneve, Udai Bishnoi provided their state reports. 10:10 Break 10:40 reconvened with Mitch McGraths and Manjit Misras state reports. Broke for Lunch at 12:10. 1:20: Reconvened. Nomination committee was pleased to announce that Xingyou Gu, South Dakota State accepted their nomination. His candidature was moved for acceptance by Bruce Downie and Seconded by Marc Cohn. The motion for Dr. Gu to move into the secretary position was put to the vote and passed unanimously. Congratulations Xingyou, our new Secretary. The Site committee reported next and Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, Normal, AL, was chosen as the potential site for next years meeting. This will hinge on Udai obtaining the permission and financial support necessary to host the meeting at Alabama. Bruce will work with Udai to develop a letter requesting permission to have the W-2168 meeting at Alabama A&M University next summer. Back-up plan is to have the meeting at Iowa State University with Manjit Misra hosting. The motion of having Alabama host the meeting was moved to be accepted by Marc Cohn and seconded by Alan Taylor. A vote was conducted which passed unanimously. Alabama next summer. A call for any new business brought forth a request to have the outline for the State Reports sent by Kathleen, resent by Bruce Downie to the membership. This also brought us to discussing strategy and tactics for obtaining funding from some/any source to forward the research/education/extension efforts of individuals or sub-groups of the membership. It was the consensus of the group that funding for the entire W-2168/ASRA would not be possible through any mechanism currently in place. So, we should focus on sub-groups within the membership and support their efforts as much as we can. The overwhelming opinion was that the membership must work closely with the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) if our opinions are to be considered. Otherwise, the ASTA will move forward with its own agenda and we will be left on the sidelines, irrelevant. There may be something that could be done with NIFA/AFRI to identify centers of excellence for seed science but this is long-term. More immediately, working through ASTA, it might be possible to highlight some areas of seed research that could be supported. The Gates foundation is interested in securing the food supply (they paid to have the seeds flown to the Norwegian Svalbard Doomsday vault) and educating the African Nations on all aspects of agriculture that might work in these nations. As an assemblage of agricultural experts with seeds as a focus, we have a unique knowledge base from which to draw for Educational efforts. Both the Gates Foundation and the NSF-BREAD grants require boots-on-the-ground to implement agricultural research and innovation. To this end, Bruce was delegated to start a list of the Alumni and Contacts of those individuals that have gone through a W-2168/ASRA lab but now reside in Africa. Another source for international development in seed science might be the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Commodity groups were also discussed and, in certain instances, can provide individual PIs with research funds. One example put forth was that Cotton Inc. has funded research in those states designated as a Cotton growing area. Fiber length and the high cost of cotton seed are two areas that are of interest to those growing the commodity. The Cotton Inc. web site highlights Agricultural Research that they are involved in through collaborative efforts with those in the public and private sectors (see http://www.cottoninc.com/biotechnology/). The American Seed Research Foundation would be another multi-state possibility to fund research in seed biology. It might be possible to spin to the companies paying in to the ASRF that part of the bad press they are getting for charging as much as they are for improved seed could be ameliorated if they advertise that they redirect a portion of this revenue back into seed research. If it would be possible to have a check-off for seeds sold, this would be a real and relevant source of funding to support Ph.D. student research to provide the seed industries with educated employees in the future. To this end, the NSF-GOALI (NSF-Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry) program might just be an avenue to obtain funding to spearhead an effort to define an estimate of the personnel needs for the Seed industry in the USA for the coming decade. This would be a collaboration between Institutes and Companies. Then, with the numbers in hand, and the awareness of their predicament that their participation in the survey would bring, perhaps the ASTA would be more willing to forward the W-2168/ASRA objectives, seeing them clearly for their own. It was mentioned that Agricultural Economists are interested in assessing the needs of the Seed Industry perhaps we could get representatives from this group on board should a GOALI be deemed desirable. Regarding the outreach of the group, someone brought up the WIKI environment as an example of social networks acting as a learning environment. If such an effort was made by any of the sub-groups of the membership, the existing ASRA web-page would be an ideal site on which to host the pages. It was now after 3:00 pm and so it was moved that the meeting would be adjourned (Bruce) and seconded by Mitch McGrath. A vote was taken and passed unanimously.

See minutes attachment.

The Ohio SU  Contreras, S., Bennett, M.A., Tay, D., Metzger J., and Nerson. H. 2009. Red to far-red ratio during seed development affects lettuce seed germinability and storability. HortScience 44:130-134. Gomes, Jr., F.G., V.H.V. Mondo, S.M. Cicero, M.B. McDonald, M.A. Bennett. 2009. Evaluation of priming effects on sweet corn seeds by SVIS. Seed Technol. 31:95-100. Contreras, S., M.A. Bennett, and D. Tay. 2009. Temperature during seed development affects weight, germinability and storability of lettuce seeds. Seed Sci and Technol. 37:398-412. Marcos-Filho, J., F.G. Gomes, Jr., M.A. Bennett, A.A. Wells and S. Stieve. 2010. Software 'Tomato Analyzer' Para a Determinacao Do Tamanho Do Embriao em Sementes Radiografadas. Revista Brasileira de Dementes (Braz. Seed J.). 32:146-153. Accepted or in Press Mondo, V.H.V., Gomes, Jr., F.G., Cicero, S.M., Bennett M.A., and McDonald, M.B. 2010. Priming effects on Lactuca sativa seeds evaluated by image analysis. Seed Sci. and Technol. 39:xx-xx (accepted). Abstracts Xu, X., Miller, S.A. and Bennett, M.. 2009. Evaluation of seed treatments to prevent bacterial canker in greenhouse tomatoes. Phytopathology 99:241. Oregon SU  Martin RC, Liu P-P, Goloviznina NA, Nonogaki H. 2010. microRNA, seeds and Darwin? - Diverse function of miRNA in seed biology and plant responses to stress. Journal of Experimental Botany, 61: 2229-2234. Nonogaki H, Bassel GW, Bewley JD. 2010. Germination - still a mystery. Plant Science, in press Martin RC, Asahina M, Liu P-P, Kristof JR, Coppersmith JL, Pluskota WE, Bassel GW, Goloviznina NA, Nguyen TT, Martinez-Andujar C, Kumar MBA, Pupel P, Nonogaki H. 2010. The microRNA156 and microRNA172 gene regulation cascades at post-germinative stages in Arabidopsis. Seed Science Research 20: 79-87. Martin RC, Asahina M, Liu P-P, Kristof JR, Coppersmith JL, Pluskota WE, Bassel GW, Goloviznina NA, Nguyen TT, Martinez-Andujar C, Kumar MBA, Pupel P, Nonogaki H. 2010. The regulation of post-germinative transition from the cotyledon- to vegetative-leaf stages by microRNA-targeted SQUAMOSA PROMOTER-BINDING PROTEIN LIKE13 in Arabidopsis. Seed Science Research 20: 89-96. Book Chapter Chen, F., Martin R.C., Song SQ, and Nonogaki, H. 2010. Seed Development and Germination. In Plant Tissue Culture: Development and Biotechnology, eds Trigiano R.N. & Gray D.J., CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL., in press Cornell U  Bystrom, L.M., Lewis, B.A., Brown, D.L., Rodriguez, E. and Obendorf, R.L. 2009. Phenolics, sugars, antimicrobial and free-radical-scavenging activities of Melicoccus bijugatus Jacq. fruits from the Dominican Republic and Florida. J. Plant Foods Human Nutr. 64:160-166. Daconti, L.R., Ortiz, P.A., DiTommaso, A., Vatataniuk, O., Mutschler, M.A., Taylor, A.G. and Obendorf, R.L. 2009. Detection and genetic analysis of polyembryonic pale swallow-wort seeds (abs.). Proceed. 63rd Ann. Meeting Northeastern Weed Sci. Soc. 63:22. Kosina, S.M., Castillo, A., Schnebly, S.R. and Obendorf, R.L. 2009. Soybean seed coat cup unloading on plants with low-raffinose, low-stachyose seeds. Seed Sci. Res. 19:145-153. Obendorf, R.L., Zimmerman, A.D., Zhang, Q., Castillo, A., Kosina, S.M., Bryant, E.G., Sensenig, E.M., Wu, J. and Schnebly, S.R. 2009. Accumulation of soluble carbohydrates during seed development and maturation of low-raffinose, low-stachyose soybean. Crop Sci. 49:329-341. Slawinska, J., Kantartzi, S.K. and Obendorf, R.L. 2009. In vitro organogenesis of Fagopyrum esculentum Moench (Polygonaceae) as a method to study seed set in buckwheat. Eur. J. Plant Sci. Biotechn. 3 (Special Issue 1):75-78. Florida SU  Pérez, H.E. (2009). Promoting germination in ornamental palm seeds through dormancy alleviation. HortTechnology 19:682-685. Pérez, H.E., Almira, F. and Brennan, M. (2009). Germination timing and dormancy break is seeds of summer farewell (Dalea pinnata, Fabaceae). Ecological Restoration 27:160-168. Heather, A.E. and Pérez H.E. (2009). Ecological and horticultural aspects of seed dormancy in relation to Florida native plants. Florida Native Plant Society 2009 Conference: Wake Up and Plant the Natives, West Palm Beach, FL. p 21. Heather, A.E., Pérez H.E. and Wilson, S.B. (2009). Alleviating seed dormancy of two native wildflowers: Polygonella polygama and Polygonella robusta. Florida Native Plant Society 2009 Conference: Wake Up and Plant the Natives, West Palm Beach, FL. p 10. Heather, A.E., Pérez H.E. and Wilson, S.B. (2009). Alleviating seed dormancy of two native wildflowers: Polygonella polygama and Polygonella robusta. SNA Research Conference Proceedings. Atlanta, GA. pp 435-441. Pérez, H.E., Reinhardt Adams, C., Kane, M.E. Norcini, J.G., Acomb, G., Larsen, C. and Zinn, T. (2009). Are Florida college students aware of and interested in native wildflowers? Florida Native Plant Society 2009 Conference: Wake Up and Plant the Natives, West Palm Beach, FL. p 13. Pérez, H.E. (2009). Seed development: Implications for conservation and restoration of native germplasm. Florida Native Plant Society 2009 Conference: Wake Up and Plant the Natives, West Palm Beach, FL. p 21. Pérez, H.E., Almira, F. and Brennan, M. (2009). Germination timing and dormancy break in seeds of summer farewell (Dalea pinnata, Fabaceae). Florida Native Plant Society 2009 Conference: Wake Up and Plant the Natives, West Palm Beach, FL. p 26. Sharma, J., George, S., Norcini, J., and Pérez, H. (2009). Intra-specific ISSR variation in Aristida stricta. Ecological Knowledge and a Global Sustainable Society: 94th Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Aug 2-7, 2009. Abstract website: http://eco.confex.com/eco/2009/techprogram/P16986.htm. South Dakota SU  Ye, H. M. E. Foley, X.-Y. Gu. 2010. New seed dormancy loci detected from weedy rice-derived advanced populations with major QTL alleles removed from the background. Plant Science (10.1016/j.plantsci.2010.04.003). Gu, X.-Y., L. Zhang, K. Glover, C. Chu, S.S. Xu, J.D. Faris, T.L. Friesen, A. Ibrahim. 2010. Genetic variation of seed dormancy in synthetic hexaploid wheat-derived populations. Crop Sci. 50:1318-1324. Gu, X.-Y., T. Liu, J. Feng, J.C. Suttle, J. Gibbons. 2010. The qSD12 underlying gene promotes abscisic acid accumulation in early developing seeds to induce primary dormancy in rice. Plant Molecular Biology 73:97-104. Louisiana SU  Cohn, M.A. 2008. Seed development, dormancy and germination. Annual Plant Reviews 27. Bradford, K.B. and Nonogaki, H. (Eds). Ann Bot 102:877-878 (Book review) Cohn, M.A. 2009. Physiological and molecular characteristics of smooth cordgrass seed. Coastal Marsh Plants Field Day Abstracts. Crowley, LA. October 28, 2009 Gianinetti A, Cohn, MA. 2008. Seed dormancy in red rice. XIII. Interaction of dry afterripening and hydration temperature. Seed Science Research 18: 151-159. Subudhi, P.K., Parco, A., Singh, P., DeLeon, T., Baisakh, N., and Cohn, M. A. 2009. Development of an introgression library of red rice for mapping and cloning of genes for weedy traits. Plant & Animal Genomes XVII Conference, January 10-14, 2009. San Diego, CA USDA  ARS Michigan SU  Saccomani, M., Stevanato, P., Trebbi, D., McGrath, J.M., Biancardi, E. (2009) Molecular and morpho-physiological characterization of sea, ruderal and cultivated beets. Euphytica 169: 19-29. El-Zohairy, S., El-Awady, A., Eissa, H.F., El- Khishin, D.A., Nassar, A., McGrath, J.M. (2009) Differential expression of salt stress-related genes in wild Beta vulgaris. Egypt. J. Genet. Cytol. 38: 187-206. Stevanato, P., Zavalloni, C., Marchetti, R, Bertaggia, M., Saccomani, M., McGrath, J.M., Panella, L.W., Biancardi, E. (2010) Relationship between subsoil nitrogen availability and sugar processing quality. Agronomy Journal 102: 17-22. Hanson, L.E., Duckert, T.M., Goodwill, T.R., McGrath, J.M. (2010) Beta PIs from the USDA-ARS, NPGS evaluated for resistance to Cercospora beticola, 2009. Plant Disease Management Reports (online) 4:F005. DOI:10,1094/PDMR04. Virginia Polytechnical U, Blacksburg  Han, CY, Long, C, Welbaum, GE 2010. Seed dormancy and germination of Michelia yunnanensis (Magnoliaceae). Scientia Horticulturae 124: 83-87. Sumugat, MR, Donahue, JL, Cortes, DF, Stromberg, VK, Grene, R, Shulaev, V, Welbaum, GE 2010. Seed development and germination in an Arabidopsis thaliana line antisense to glutathione reductase 2. Journal of New Seeds 11:104-126. Welbaum, GE 2009. Distance-learning courses on Seed Biology and Technology available from public agricultural universities in the United States. Journal of New Seeds 10: 233-235. Welbaum, GE, Shen, Z-X, Watkinson, JI, Wang, CL, Nowak, J. 2009. Producing muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) transplants in growing media primed with disaccharides improved survivability, moisture retention, and particle aggregation by stimulating microbial biofilm production. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 134:387395. U Kentucky  Baskin, C. C., C. T. Chien, S. Y. Chen and J. M. Baskin. 2009. Epicotyl morphophysiological dormancy in seeds of Daphniphyllum glaucescens, a woody member of the Saxifragales. International Journal of Plant Sciences 170: 174-181. Jayasuriya, K. M. G. G., J. M. Baskin, R. L. Geneve, C. C. Baskin. 2009. Phylogeny of Seed Dormancy in Convolvulaceae, Subfamily Convolvuloideae (Solanales). Annals of Botany 103: 45-63. Jayasuriya, K. M. G. G., J. M. Baskin, R. L. Geneve, C. C. Baskin. 2009. A proposed mechanism for physical dormancy break in seeds of Ipomoea lacunosa (Convolvulaceae). Annals of Botany 103: 433-445. Phartyal, S. S., T. Kondo,Y. Hoshino, C.C. Baskin and J.M. Baskin. 2009. Morphological dormancy in seeds of the autumn-germinating shrub Lonicera caerulea var. emphyllocalyx (Caprifoliaceae). Plant Species Biology 24: 20-26. Jayasuriya, K. M. G. G., J. M. Baskin, R. L. Geneve and C. C. Baskin. 2009. Sensitivity cycling and mechanism of physical dormancy break in seeds of Ipomoea hederacea (Convolvulaceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences 170: 429-443. Jayasuriya, K. M. G. G., J. M. Baskin and C. C. Baskin. 2009. Sensitivity cycling and its ecological role in seeds with physical dormancy. Seed Science Research 19: 3-13. Yang, H., C.C. Baskin, J. M. Baskin, Z. Cao, X. Zhu1, Z. Huang, M. Dong. 2009. Responses of caryopsis germination, early seedling growth and ramet clonal growth of Bromus inermis to soil salinity. Plant and Soil 316: 265-275. Phartyal, S. S. T. Kondo, J. M. Baskin and C.C. Baskin. 2009. Temperature requirements differ for the two stages of seed dormancy-break in Aegopodium podagraria (Apiaceae), A species with deep complex morphophysiological dormancy. American Journal of Botany 96: 1086-1095. Graae, B. J., K. Verheyen, A. Kolb, S. Van Der Veken, T. Heinken, O. Chabrerie, M. Diekmann, K. Valtinat, R. Zindel, E. Karlsson, L. Strom, G. Decocq, M. Hermy and C.C. Baskin. 2009. Germination requirements and seed mass of slow- and fast-colonizing temperate forest herbs along a latitudinal gradient. Ecoscience 16: 248-257. Baskin, C. C., S.-Y. Chen, C.-T. Chien and J. M. Baskin. 2009. Overview of seed dormancy in Viburnum (Caprifoliaceae). Propagation of Ornamental Plants 9: 115-121. Sun, H. Z., J. J. Lu, D. Y. Tan, J. M. Baskin and C. C. Baskin. 2009. Dormancy and germination characteristics of the trimorphic achenes of Garhadiolus papposus (Asteraceae), an annual ephemeral from the Junggar Desert, northwest China. South African Journal of Botany 75: 537-545. Turner, S. R., A. Cook, J. M. Baskin, C. C. Baskin, K. J. Steadman and K. W. Dixon. 2009. Identification and characterization of the water gap in the physically dormant seeds of Dodonaea petiolaris: a first report for Sapindaceae. Annals of Botany 104: 833-844. Turner, S. R., L. E. Commander, J. M. Baskin, C. C. Baskin and K. W. Dixon. 2009. Germination behaviour of Astroloma xerophyllum (Ericaceae), a species with woody indehiscent endocarps. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 160: 299-311. Hu, X.W., Y. R. Wang, Y. P. Wu and C.C. Baskin. 2009. Role of the lens in controlling water uptake in seeds of two Fabaceae (Papilionoideae) species treated with sulphuric acid and hot water. Seed Science Research 19: 73-80. Jayasuriya, K. M. G. G., J. M. Baskin, D. M. TeKrony, and C. C. Baskin. 2009. Sensitivity cycling to physical dormancy break and seed vigour of two Ipomoea species (Convolvulaceae). Seed Science Research 19: 249-259. Hall, S., C. Barton, C. C. Baskin. 2009. Topsoil seed bank of an oak-hickory forest in eastern Kentucky as a Restoration Tool on Surface Mines. Restoration Ecology DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2008.00509. Hall, S. L., C. D. Barton and C. C. Baskin. 2009. Seed viability in stockpiled topsoil on a surface mine in Appalachia. Ecological Restoration 27:381-383. Wang, J. H., C. C. Baskin, W. Chen and G. Z. Du. 2009 Variation in seed germination between populations of five sub-alpine woody species from eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau following dry storage at low temperatures. Ecological Research DOI 10.1007/s11284- 009-0643-0 Zheng, Z., S. Zhang, G. Yang, Y. Tang, J. M. Baskin, C. C. Baskin and L. Yang. 2009. Abundance and distribution of cavity trees in an old-growth subtropical montane evergreen broad-leaved forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 39: 2234-2245. Graae, B. J., K. Verheyen, A. kolb, S. Van Der Veken, H. Heinken, O. Chabrerie, M. Diekmann, K. Valtinat, R. Zindel, E. Karlsson, L. Strom, G. Decocq, M. Hermy and C. C. Baskin. 2009. Germination requirements and seed mass of slow- and fast-colonizing temperate forest herbs along a latitudinal gradient. Ecoscience 16: 248-257. Chen, S.-Y., Chien, C.-T., Baskin, J. M. and Baskin, C. C. 2009. Storage behavior and changes in concentrations of abscisic acid and gibberellins during dormancy break and germination in seeds of Phellodendron amurense var. wilsonii (Rutaceae). Tree Physiology 30: 275-284. Geneve, R.L. (2009). Physical seed dormancy in selected Caesalpinioid legumes from eastern North America. Propagation of Ornamental Plants 9:129-134. Zheng, Y., Ren, N., Wang, H., Stromberg, A.J. and Perry, S.E. 2009. Global Identification of Targets of the Arabidopsis MADS Domain Protein AGAMOUS-Like15. The Plant Cell 21, 2563-2577. Nakaminami, K., Hill, K., Perry, S.E., Sentoku, N., Long, J.A. and Karlson, D.T. 2009. Arabidopsis Cold Shock Domain Proteins: Relationships to Floral and Silique Development. Journal of Experimental Botany 60, 1047-1062.