A groundbreaking study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals that plants employ abscisic acid (ABA) as a rapid messaging system. When environmental temperatures decline, maternal tissues ramp up ABA production and convey this hormone to the developing seeds. This initial hormonal surge prompts the seeds to enter a deeper state of dormancy, effectively priming them for harsher conditions. Conversely, under warmer climates, where germination rates are favorable, ABA levels rise more gradually, resulting in less pronounced dormancy.

Importantly, this signaling mechanism was absent in non-maternal tissues. Plants that cannot produce ABA were incapable of triggering dormancy, establishing this phenomenon as a method of intergenerational communication, rather than a localized response. Researchers highlight this process as a biological analogue to maternal influence in humans: the mother plant adapts its offspring’s developmental trajectory based on environmental experiences.

Agricultural Implications

This revelation offers significant translational opportunities for the field of crop science:

• Faster Adaptation to Climate Change:
  Seeds can be immediately influenced by the maternal environment, rather than relying solely on slower genetic modifications. This establishes a new approach for breeders and agronomists in developing climate-resilient crops that can effectively adapt to increasingly volatile seasons.
• Enhanced Seed Quality and Germinability:
  Understanding the ABA-driven maternal signaling could enable the industry to produce seeds that are pre-adapted to specific temperature and nutrient conditions, thus mitigating variability and improving yield predictability for growers.
• Innovative Tools for Breeding Stress-Resistant Crops:
  Integrating hormonal “inheritance” with genetic and epigenetic methods provides plant breeders with an additional means to engineer traits across generations, subsequently speeding up the development of cultivars with tailored dormancy and stress tolerance profiles.

Convergence of Plant and Human Health

The implications of this research extend beyond agriculture, indicating a growing intersection between plant science and human health studies. Collaboration between human health scientists and plant biologists led to the first discovery of how plants transmit information to their developing seeds.

Experts transferred knowledge from developmental programming and cell-level signaling—from fields traditionally focused on human biology—into crop research. Utilizing advanced technologies previously employed in biomedical fields allowed researchers to meticulously trace hormonal movements from maternal tissues into individual seed cells.

This interdisciplinary collaboration heralds a new era in addressing food security, climate adaptation, and soil-plant relationships, emphasizing that methodologies from human biology are increasingly relevant in agricultural contexts.

A Platform for Future Crop Innovations

The teams from the John Innes Centre and Earlham Institute have uncovered an essential intergenerational communication channel, providing seed companies and breeders with innovative scientific tools. As climate challenges escalate, the ability to influence the “pre-programming” of seeds may be crucial in developing resilient and high-performing cropping systems globally.

Further Reading

For those interested in the intricate details of this study, please refer to the original paper:
Adaptation of seed dormancy to maternal climate occurs via intergenerational transport of abscisic acid, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (37) e2519319122.