Seed germination is a complex process involving imbibition, activation and subsequent growth. In addition to re-establishing metabolic activity, water uptake helps stabilize macromolecules and biochemical reactions, resulting in radicle protrusion. Factors affecting water uptake include seed composition, water availability and seed coat permeability. Water entry sites vary with species and occur primarily through the hilum, micropyle or lens. In addition, seed size influences water uptake, where larger seeds are usually less permeable. The seed coat plays a significant role in regulating the water absorption process. Several seed coat characteristics, including color, thickness and differences in the anatomical structure, such as the presence of pores, cuticles and radicle pockets, alter water permeability. Similarly, the presence of either physical or physiological seed dormancy negatively affects water uptake. This review emphasizes that understanding seed characteristics, such as size, shape and seed coat permeability, and their relationships is essential for breeding and selecting seeds with desirable traits, as they directly influence water uptake, leading to improved germination and growth.

The wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crown is the critical organ of low temperature stress survival over winter. In cold-acclimated crowns, ice formation in the apoplast causes severe tissue disruption as it grows at the expense of intracellular water. While previous crown studies have shown the vascular transition zone (VTZ) to have a higher freezing sensitivity than the shoot apical meristem (SAM), the mechanism behind the differential freezing response is not fully understood. Cooling cold-acclimated crowns to –10 °C resulted in an absence of VTZ tetrazolium chloride staining, whereas the temperatures at which 50% of the SAM stained positive and 50% of plants recovered (LT₅₀) were similar after cold acclimation for 21 (–16 °C) and 42 d (–20 °C) at 4 °C. Proteomic analysis of the apoplastic fluids identified dehydrins, vernalization-responsive proteins, and cold shock proteins preferentially accumulated in the SAM. In contrast, modifications to the VTZ centered on increases in pathogenesis-related proteins, anti-freeze proteins, and sugar hydrolyzing enzymes. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy focal plane array analysis identified the biochemical modification of the cell wall to enhance methyl-esterified cross-linking of glucuronoarabinoxylans in the VTZ. These findings indicate that the SAM and VTZ express two distinct tissue-specific apoplastic responses during cold acclimation.

While synchrotron radiation is a powerful tool in material and biomedical sciences, it is still underutilized in plant research. This mini review attempts to introduce the potential of synchrotron-based spectroscopic and imaging methods and their applications to plant sciences. Synchrotron-based Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray absorption and fluorescence techniques, and two- and three-dimensional imaging techniques are examined. We also discuss the limitations of synchrotron-based research in plant sciences, specifically the types of plant samples that can be used. Despite limitations, the unique features of synchrotron radiation such as high brightness, polarization and pulse properties offer great advantages over conventional spectroscopic and imaging tools and enable the correlation of the structure and chemical composition of plants with biochemical function. Modern detector technologies and experimental methodologies are thus enabling plant scientists to investigate aspects of plant sciences such as ultrafast kinetics of biochemical reactions, mineral uptake, transport and accumulation, and dynamics of cell wall structure and composition during environmental stress in unprecedented ways using synchrotron beamlines. The potential for the automation of some of these synchrotron technologies and their application to plant phenotyping is also discussed.

Cuticular waxes are a mixture of hydrophobic very-long-chain fatty acids and their derivatives accumulated in the plant cuticle. Most studies define the role of cuticular wax largely based on reducing nonstomatal water loss. The present study investigated the role of cuticular wax in reducing both low-temperature and dehydration stress in plants using Arabidopsis thaliana mutants and transgenic genotypes altered in the formation of cuticular wax. cer3-6, a known Arabidopsis wax-deficient mutant (with distinct reduction in aldehydes, n-alkanes, secondary n-alcohols, and ketones compared to wild type (WT)), was most sensitive to water loss, while dewax, a known wax overproducer (greater alkanes and ketones compared to WT), was more resistant to dehydration compared to WT. Furthermore, cold-acclimated cer3-6 froze at warmer temperatures, while cold-acclimated dewax displayed freezing exotherms at colder temperatures compared to WT. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis identified a characteristic decrease in the accumulation of certain waxes (e.g., alkanes, alcohols) in Arabidopsis cuticles under cold acclimation, which was additionally reduced in cer3-6. Conversely, the dewax mutant showed a greater ability to accumulate waxes under cold acclimation. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) also supported observations in cuticular wax deposition under cold acclimation. Our data indicate cuticular alkane waxes along with alcohols and fatty acids can facilitate avoidance of both ice formation and leaf water loss under dehydration stress and are promising genetic targets of interest.

Fusarium head blight (FHB), a scab principally caused by Fusarium graminearum Schw., is a serious disease of wheat. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potential of combining synchrotron based phase contrast X-ray imaging (PCI) with Fourier Transform mid infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to understand the mechanisms of resistance to FHB by resistant wheat cultivars. Our hypothesis is that structural and biochemical differences between resistant and susceptible cultivars play a significant role in developing resistance to FHB. Synchrotron based PCI images and FTIR absorption spectra (4000–800 cm−1) of the floret and rachis from Fusarium-damaged and undamaged spikes of the resistant cultivar ‘Sumai3’, tolerant cultivar ‘FL62R1’, and susceptible cultivar ‘Muchmore’ were collected and analyzed. The PCI images show significant differences between infected and non-infected florets and rachises of different wheat cultivars. However, no pronounced difference between non-inoculated resistant and susceptible cultivar in terms of floret structures could be determined due to the complexity of the internal structures. The FTIR spectra showed significant variability between infected and non-infected floret and rachis of the wheat cultivars. The changes in absorption wavenumbers following pathogenic infection were mostly in the spectral range from 1800–800 cm−1. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was also used to determine the significant chemical changes inside floret and rachis when exposed to the FHB disease stress to understand the plant response mechanism. In the floret and rachis samples, PCA of FTIR spectra revealed differences in cell wall related polysaccharides. In the florets, absorption peaks for Amide I, cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin were affected by the pathogenic fungus. In the rachis of the wheat cultivars, PCA underlines significant changes in pectin, cellulose, and hemicellulose characteristic absorption spectra. Amide II and lignin absorption peaks, persistent in the rachis of Sumai3, together with increased peak shift at 1245 cm−1 after infection with FHB may be a marker for stress response in which the cell wall compounds related to pathways for lignification are increased. Synchrotron based PCI combined with FTIR spectroscopy show promising results related to FHB in wheat. The combined technique is a powerful new tool for internal visualisation and biomolecular monitoring before and during plant-microbe interactions to understand both the differences between cultivars and their different responses to disease stress.