Properties and diversity of Arabidopsis thaliana seed seminal mucilage

Properties and diversity of Arabidopsis thaliana seed seminal mucilage

Models predicting the effects of climate change on ecosystems require data on how adaptive plant traits are affected. To accelerate knowledge dissemination and facilitate innovation in this field, open science is a strategic tool. With this objective in mind, 187490 data acquired on 20 natural variants of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana were made available to the scientific community and described in a data paper summarizing 4 years of work of the CEMMU project funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR).

The CNMU ANR project aimed to study the effect of temperature changes on an adaptive seed trait, the production of mucilage, a polysaccharide hydrogel that forms upon imbibition of seeds in water.
Various hypotheses have been put forward to explain the adaptive advantage of mucilage production, including its role in maintaining seed viability. In Arabidopsis, the mucilage consists of two structurally distinct layers, a water-extractable outer layer and a inner layer that adheres to the seed. These structural differences suggest that the two layers play different roles in seed physiology.

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Modification date : 11 September 2023 | Publication date : 26 December 2022 | Redactor : MW