38 GERMINATION.CA JANUARY 2018 “We are looking at setting up different tests for seed size, and [exploring] how it affects seedling vigour and establishment the field. What Gwyneth’s research is basi- cally showing is that as opposed to the seed coat being a static, control- ling feature, a lot of your seed size comes from the zygotic component, and that’s a different way of thinking about the entire seed size process,” says Susan Slater, seed technology manager in Bayer’s Crop Science divi- sion in Saskatchewan. For Slater, attending the ISSS confer- ence is hugely valuable because it gives her firsthand insight into the strides being made that ultimately result in new discoveries at the product level. “I always support basic, funda- mental research — we need to have it. There’s getting to be more and more of a push not to fund that fun- damental research. I will see different things in the field or get questions from my agronomists, and I don’t know why the seeds or plots act the way they do. If I can talk to seed scientists and get their take on those issues from a fundamental level, I can set up experiments to try and solve some of those problems that would otherwise be baffling to a lot of us.” Plant Decision-Making: Flowering and Seed Dormancy Plants make two big decisions: when to flower and reproduce, and when to terminate the dormancy of their seeds, which leads to the establish- ment of a plant. “We are looking at how seeds are using information from the environ- HOW MUCH SEED CAN A SEED CHECK SEED TECH CHECK? Seed testing experts in purity, germination, vigour and seed health. 1-866-980-8324 OFFICE@SEEDCHECK.NET SEEDCHECK.NET LIKE US ON YOUR SEED LAB ment to optimize the timing and posi- tioning through which they terminate dormancy,” says Toronto’s George Bassel, member of the ISSS board who’s doing his own research into how seeds perform the feats they do. He did his PhD in molecular and cellular biology at the University of Guelph in 2006, and is now a profes- sor of plant computational biology at the United Kingdom’s University of Birmingham. “Seeds are the way plants move through space. They can move from here to there, and they can move through time. Seeds are space-time travellers, and the way they exit and enter this twist of time is through dormancy. We want to know how seeds are optimizing that decision.” Such knowledge could also have a huge impact on plant storage, something ISSS president Henk Hilhorst of the Netherlands is stud- ying. Hilhorst, professor in the plant sciences department at Wageningen University, studies resurrection plants — a small group of plants able to revive themselves after being completely dried — and how Toronto's George Bassel, professor of plant computational biology at the United Kingdom’s University of Birmingham.