Stress Memory And Seed Quality

摘要

The impact of stress on a plant can make an imprint onto the next generation of plants.For as long as crops have been domesticated, farmers have been selecting seed from the best performing plants — based primarily on their yield and relative performance. In some cases, a plant may experience stress during the season, whether from disease, drought or insects.Many times that plant will recover and still produce a decent yield, and possibly provide seed for planting the following year. It's a system that has worked relatively well for a long time. But this system depends on the idea that if a plant experiencesstress and survives, it won't pass a memory of the stress on to its offspring.