Before sowing, episperm of seeds were cut carefully using a knife.
Oxygen consumption then increases sharply when the radicles break through the episperm, and germination is finished.
When the dry seeds imbibe water, germination begins, and when the radicle breaks through the episperm, germination is finished [ 5].
As shown in Figure 1a, at phase III, radicels broke through the episperm, indicating that seeds would soon sprout.
They consume plenty of oxygen at the beginning of germination, enter lag period, then oxygen consumption increases sharply when the radicles have broken through the episperm.
During the germination process, five periods of germination were investigated, including group I (seeds without absorbing water), group II (seeds imbibed water for 12 hours), group III (radicles broken through the episperm about for 24 hours), group IV (one radicle and germ obvious about for 36 hours) and group V (green germ and three radicles visible for about 48 hours).
To understand the protein trends in the wheat embryo and endosperm, our study investigated four periods of the seeds germination, including phase I (seeds absorbing water for 5 min), phase II (seeds absorbing water for 5 hours), phase III (radicles broke through the episperm and seeds will sprout soon), and phase IV (green germ and three radicles visible).
Transgenic plants exhibited: 1) 2-3 day delays in bolting and flowering time; 2) the appearance of novel, petal-like floral structures at the basal part of the buds; and 3) a lack of seed-set suggesting sterility, even though an episperm was observed at an early developmental stage in some siliques.
