Julia Buitink

Julia Buitink
French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) | INRAE · Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences (IRHS)

PhD

About

164
Publications
37,115
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7,726
Citations
Education
July 1989 - June 1996

Publications

Publications (164)
Article
Full-text available
Seed longevity, the maintenance of viability during storage, is a crucial factor for preservation of genetic resources and ensuring proper seedling establishment and high crop yield. We used a systems biology approach to identify key genes regulating the acquisition of longevity during seed maturation of Medicago truncatula. Using 104 transcriptome...
Article
Full-text available
Main conclusion: A special issue reviews the recent progress made in our understanding of desiccation tolerance across various plant and animal kingdoms. It has been known for a long time that seeds can survive near absolute protoplasmic dehydration through air drying and complete germination upon rehydration because of their desiccation tolerance...
Article
Full-text available
Plant pathogenic bacteria disseminate and survive mainly in association with seeds. This study addresses whether seeds are passive carriers or engage a molecular dialogue with pathogens during their development. We developed two pathosystems using Medicago truncatula with Xanthomonas alfalfae subsp. alfalfae (Xaa), the natural Medicago sp. pathogen...
Article
Full-text available
In seeds, desiccation tolerance (DT) and the ability to survive the dry state for prolonged periods of time (longevity) are two essential traits for seed quality that are consecutively acquired during maturation. Using transcriptomic and metabolomic profiling together with a conditional-dependent network of global transcription interactions, we dis...
Article
Full-text available
In contrast to orthodox seeds that acquire desiccation tolerance during maturation, recalcitrant seeds are unable to survive drying. These desiccation-sensitive seeds constitute an interesting model for comparative analysis with phylogenetically close species that are desiccation tolerant. Considering the importance of LEA (late embryogenesis abund...
Article
Full-text available
Seeds rely on temperature to adjust their germination timing by modulating primary and secondary dormancy. The knowledge regarding an intraspecific variation in the germination responses to supra-optimal temperatures during imbibition within the Solanum lycopersicon species and its relation with pre- and post-harvest environments is limited. Here,...
Article
The SWI/SNF (SWItch/Sucrose Non-Fermentable) chromatin remodeling complex is involved in various aspects of plant development and stress responses. Here, we investigated the role of BRM (BRAHMA), a core catalytic subunit of the SWI/SNF complex, in Arabidopsis thaliana seed biology. brm-3 seeds exhibited enlarged size, reduced yield, increased longe...
Article
Full-text available
The study of seed moisture sorption isotherms helps us to understand the response of seeds to changes in moisture in their environment and how this might impact their longevity. A seed moisture isotherm shows the relationship between moisture content (MC) and water activity (a w) at a constant temperature. Seed MC is higher when it dries from a hyd...
Article
The longevity of seeds, also known as storability, is the period of time for which a seed lot maintains its viability during storage. The method aims to determine longevity of a seed lot during storage in a controlled environment. Seeds are first rehydrated to a preset water content (or relative humidity, RH) and then incubated under controlled con...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction The production of highly vigorous seeds with high longevity is an important lever to increase crop production efficiency, but its acquisition during seed maturation is strongly influenced by the growth environment. Methods An association rule learning approach discovered MtABI4, a known longevity regulator, as a gene with transcript l...
Article
Full-text available
To ensure their vital role in disseminating the species, dormant seeds have developed adaptive strategies to protect themselves against pathogens and predators. This is orchestrated through the synthesis of an array of constitutive defenses that are put in place in a developmentally regulated manner, which are the focus of this review. We summarize...
Article
Full-text available
Background One of the levers towards alternative solutions to pesticides is to improve seed defenses against pathogens, but a better understanding is needed on the type and regulation of existing pathways during germination. Dormant seeds are able to defend themselves against microorganisms during cycles of rehydration and dehydration in the soil....
Article
In order to capture the drought impacts on seed quality acquisition in Brassica napus and its potential interaction with early biotic stress, seeds of the ‘Express’ genotype of oilseed rape were characterized from late embryogenesis to full maturity from plants submitted to reduced watering (WS) with or without pre‐occurring inoculation by the tell...
Article
Full-text available
For conventional seed (gene)banking of orthodox seeds, it is essential to effectively dry the seeds and maintain a low moisture content (MC). Cromarty's equation describes the MC and relative humidity (RH) relationship of drying seeds, based on their oil content, and can be used to determine the MC seeds would reach when dried to equilibrium in a c...
Article
Full-text available
The stable production of high vigorous seeds is pivotal to crop yield. Also, a high longevity is essential to avoid progressive loss of seed vigour during storage. Both seed traits are strongly influenced by the environment during seed development. Here, we investigated the impact of heat stress (HS) during fruit ripening on tomato seed lifespan du...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding seed moisture desorption and adsorption isotherms is important for seed quality maintenance and better predicting seed storage lifespan. Freshly harvested oilseed rape and barley seeds were dried and then rehydrated twice. Seed equilibrium relative humidity (eRH) and moisture content (MC) were determined at different humidity levels s...
Article
Seed longevity, the capacity to remain alive during dry storage, is pivotal to germination performance and essential to preserve genetic diversity. It is acquired during late maturation concomitantly with the seed degreening and de-differentiation of chloroplasts into colorless, non-photosynthetic plastids called eoplasts. Since chlorophyll retenti...
Chapter
Longevity is defined as the extent to which seeds can remain alive during storage. It is an essential seed trait that serves to bridge the time between seed abscission until germination, and underpins global agriculture and plant species conservation. Over the past decade, the research field in longevity of orthodox seeds has seen major development...
Article
Full-text available
Seed moisture sorption isotherms show the equilibrium relationship between water content and equilibrium relative humidity (eRH) when seeds are either losing water from a hydrated state (desorption isotherm) or gaining water from a dry state (adsorption isotherm). They have been used in food science to predict the stability of different products an...
Chapter
This chapter summarizes the state of the art and some key research and innovation perspectives with regard to three topics that are particularly important for biocontrol deployment. The first topic is the use of seeds as targets and/or vectors of biocontrol organisms or substances, enabling seed or plant protection through direct antagonism towards...
Article
Full-text available
Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is the third largest oil crop worldwide. Like other crops, oilseed rape faces unfavorable environmental conditions resulting from multiple and combined actions of abiotic and biotic constraints that occur throughout the growing season. In particular drought severely reduces seed yield but also impacts seed quality i...
Article
Full-text available
Seed maturation comprises important developmental processes, such as seed filling and the acquisition of seed germination capacity, desiccation tolerance, longevity, and dormancy. The molecular regulation of these processes is tightly controlled by the LAFL transcription factors, among which ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE 3 (ABI3) was shown to be involv...
Article
Full-text available
Faced with the challenges of adapting agriculture to climate change, seed production should have increased resilience to abiotic stress factors and the expected proliferation of pathogens. This concerns both the nutritional quality and seed vigor, two crucial factors in seedling establishment and yield. Both qualities are acquired during seed devel...
Article
Full-text available
Legume seeds are an important source of proteins, minerals, and vitamins for human and animal diets and represent a keystone for food security. With climate change and global warming, the production of grain legumes faces new challenges concerning seed vigor traits that allow the fast and homogenous establishment of the crop in a wide range of envi...
Article
Full-text available
Background During maturation seeds acquire several physiological traits to enable them to survive drying and disseminate the species. Few studies have addressed the regulatory networks controlling acquisition of these traits at the tissue level particularly in endospermic seeds such as tomato, which matures in a fully hydrated environment and does...
Article
Since extreme environmental events are expected to increase with climate change, identifying candidate genes for stabilizing the protein composition of legume seeds or optimizing it in a given environment is increasingly important. To elucidate the genetic determinants of seed protein plasticity, major seed proteins from 200 ecotypes of M. truncatu...
Article
Full-text available
Seed vigor is an estimate of how successfully a seed lot will establish seedlings under a wide range of environmental conditions, with both the embryo and the surrounding endosperm playing distinct roles in the germination behaviour. Germination and seedling establishment are essential for crop production to be both sustainable and profitable. Seed...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Monitoring the timing of seedling emergence and early development via high-throughput phenotyping with computer vision is a challenging topic of high interest in plant science. While most studies focus on the measurements of leaf area index or detection of specific events such as emergence, little attention has been put on the identifi...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background During maturation seeds acquire several physiological traits to enable them to survive drying and disseminate the species. Few studies have addressed the regulatory networks controlling acquisition of these traits at the tissue level particularly in endospermic seeds such as tomato, which matures in a fully hydrated environment and does...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background During maturation seeds acquire several physiological traits to enable them to survive drying and disseminate the species. Few studies have addressed the regulatory networks controlling acquisition of these traits at the tissue level particularly in endospermic seeds such as tomato, which matures in a fully hydrated environment and does...
Article
During the later stages of seed maturation, two key adaptive traits are acquired that contribute to seed lifespan and dispersal, longevity and dormancy. The seed‐specific heat shock transcription factor A9 is an important hub gene in the transcriptional network of late seed maturation. Here we demonstrate that HSFA9 plays a role in thermotolerance...
Article
Full-text available
Plants produce a vast array of defense compounds to protect themselves from pathogen attack or herbivore predation. A specific class of defense compounds are the saponins, bioactive glycosides with a steroidal or triterpenoid aglycone backbone. The model legume Medicago truncatula synthesizes two types of saponins, hemolytic saponins and non-hemoly...
Article
Seed longevity is a central pivot of the preservation of biodiversity, being of main importance to face the challenges linked to global climate change and population growth. This complex, quantitative seed quality trait is acquired on the mother plant during the second part of seed development. Understanding what factors contribute to lifespan is o...
Chapter
Physiological seed quality comprises several seed characteristics related to seed and seedling performances such as high germination rate, rapid germination, homogenous germination, and long storability of mature seeds. All these seed quality traits are tightly related to the capacity of seeds to properly develop and reach maturity and, therefore,...
Article
Full-text available
Seed longevity, the maintenance of viability during dry storage, is a crucial factor to preserve plant genetic resources and seed vigor. Inference of a temporal gene‐regulatory network of seed maturation identified auxin signaling as a putative mechanism to induce longevity‐related genes. Using auxin‐response sensors and tryptophan‐dependent auxin...
Preprint
Full-text available
Most angiosperms produce seeds that are desiccated on dispersal with the ability to retain viability in storage facilities for prolonged periods. However, some species produce desiccation sensitive seeds which rapidly lose viability in storage, precluding ex situ conservation. Current consensus is that desiccation sensitive seeds either lack or do...
Article
Full-text available
Most angiosperms produce seeds that are desiccated on dispersal with the ability to 30 retain viability in storage facilities for prolonged periods. However, some species produce 31 desiccation sensitive seeds which rapidly lose viability in storage, precluding ex situ 32 conservation. Current consensus is that desiccation sensitive seeds either la...
Article
Full-text available
Advances in deciphering the functional architecture of eukaryotic genomes have been facilitated by recent breakthroughs in sequencing technologies, enabling a more comprehensive representation of genes and repeat elements in genome sequence assemblies, as well as more sensitive and tissue-specific analyses of gene expression. Here we show that PacB...
Article
Full-text available
Long-term survival during dry storage or longevity is a pre-requisite to avoid deterioration, leading to loss of vigor. Longevity is routinely evaluated by the ability to germinate after storage. It increases progressively during seed maturation, after the acquisition of desiccation tolerance. However, the capacity to germinate represents only a pa...
Article
Desiccation tolerance and longevity are two essential properties that enable seeds to ensure the plant life cycle. Desiccation tolerance is defined as the ability to tolerate a rapid drying that brings the seed moisture content in equilibrium with ambient air, whereas longevity is the capacity to remain alive in the dry state over long periods. Bot...
Article
Full-text available
Seed longevity, defined as the ability to remain alive during storage, is an important agronomic factor. Poor longevity negatively impacts seedling establishment and consequently crop yield. This is particularly problematic for soybean as seeds have a short lifespan. While the economic importance of soybean has fueled a large number of transcriptom...
Data
Comparison of soybean seed development for the 2013 and 2014 harvest at indicated phenological stages. (A) Evolution of seed dry weight (black circles) and water content (blue squares). Data are the means (± SE) of 3 to 5 replicates of 20 seeds. (B) Acquisition of germination (black circles) and desiccation tolerance (blue squares), evaluated after...
Data
List of differentially expressed genes during seed maturation. (XLSX)
Data
List of primers combination used for gene expression validation of target genes by qRT-PCR. (DOCX)
Data
Transcription factors present in the co-expression network of soybean seed maturation. Genes with expression profiles that correlate with longevity (P50, PCC>0.9) are indicated in bold with a blue background. (XLSX)
Data
Description of the reproductive phenological stages of soybean seeds. (PDF)
Data
List of differentially expressed genes associated with longevity. List of differentially expressed genes that are higher/lower in mature seeds exhibiting maximal longevity (stage 9) compared to dried immature seeds (stage 7.2D) with low longevity. (XLSX)
Article
Full-text available
Improving nutritional seed quality is an important challenge in grain legume breeding. However, the genes controlling the differential accumulation of globulins, which are major contributors to seed nutritional value in legumes, remain largely unknown. We combined a search for protein quantity loci with genome‐wide association studies on the abunda...
Article
Full-text available
The preservation of our genetic resources and production of high-quality seeds depends on their ability to remain viable and vigorous during storage. In a quantitative trait locus analysis on seed longevity in Medicago truncatula, we identified the bZIP transcription factor ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE5 (ABI5). Characterization of Mt-abi5 insertion mu...
Article
Full-text available
Besides the deposition of storage reserves, seed maturation is characterized by the acquisition of functional traits including germination, desiccation tolerance, dormancy, and longevity. After seed filling, seed longevity increases up to 30-fold, concomitant with desiccation that brings the embryo to a quiescent state. The period that we define as...
Article
Desiccation tolerance (DT, the ability of certain organisms to survive severe dehydration) was a key trait in the evolution of life in terrestrial environments. Likely, the development of desiccation-tolerant life forms was accompanied by the acquisition of dormancy or a dormancy-like stage as a second powerful adaptation to cope with variations in...
Presentation
Abscisic acid insensitive 5 (ABI5) is a bZIP transcription factor that activates ABA- and stress-responsive genes in seeds and seedlings. Here, we will present evidence that ABI5 is also an important regulator of late maturation in legumes. Using Tnt1 insertion mutants of Medicago truncatula and EMS mutants of pea, we discovered that seed longevity...
Article
Full-text available
A minority of living organisms are able to dry out completely and yet remain viable, a phenomenon known as desiccation tolerance. Its occurrence is established in prokaryotes and eukaryotes across all life kingdoms, including plants and lower invertebrates. In the dry state, the metabolism of the organisms is suspended. Even more striking, desiccat...
Article
Full-text available
Expression analyses of time series have become a very popular method for studying the dynamics of a wide range of biological processes. Here, we present expression analysis of a time series with help of microarrays used to study the re-establishment of desiccation tolerance (DT) in germinated Arabidopsis thaliana seeds. Mature seeds of A. thaliana...
Article
Full-text available
Main conclusion During re-establishment of desiccation tolerance (DT), early events promote initial protection and growth arrest, while late events promote stress adaptation and contribute to survival in the dry state. Mature seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana are desiccation tolerant, but they lose desiccation tolerance (DT) while progressing to germ...
Article
Full-text available
Ce numéro présente les travaux conduits dans le cadre de l’analyse des Pertes agricoles et alimentaires dont une synthèse a été présentée lors du colloque du 28 novembre 2015 à Paris. Avec l’appui de Redlingshofer B.. Experts interrogés : Million G., Chereau D.
Presentation
Abscisic acid insensitive 5 (ABI5) is a bZIP transcription factor that activates ABA- and stress-responsive genes in seeds and seedlings. In Medicago, we established that MtABI5 regulates the re-establishment of desiccation tolerance in germinated axes and certain LEA proteins during seed maturation. However, little is known about its role during s...
Article
Reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions and the use of sulfur-free mineral fertilizers are decreasing soil sulfur levels and threaten the adequate fertilization of most crops. To provide knowledge regarding legume adaptation to sulfur restriction, we subjected Medicago truncatula, a model legume species, to sulfur deficiency at various developmental...
Poster
Full-text available
To identify the molecular processes and signaling pathways regulating desiccation tolerance (DT) in plant seeds, we characterized the transcriptomes of developing seeds before and after the acquisition of DT and compared these data with the transcriptomes obtained from germinated seeds that were desiccation sensitive and germinated seeds that were...