Role of soybean aleurone layer in water uptake in seeds

Abstract

Dry soybean seeds are inclined to suffer the imbibitional damage. The physiological role of soybean aleurone layers in water uptake was investigated because the damage might be suppressed by the aleurone layer as well as the seed coat. Drastic imbibitional damage including the destruction of cotyledon tissue was observed in embryos, but such remarkable damage was scarcely observed in embyros coated with only the aleurone layer. Normal germination of soybean seeds was considerably depressed by removal of the aleurone layer. Casparian strip-like tissues were obtained from the aleurone layers treated with pectinase and cellulase. Proteins extracted with 0.5 N NaOH from the Casparian strip-like tissues showed a high glycine molar percentage (58%). Based on these results, it was concluded that the aleurone layer was essential for normal seed germination and Casparian strip-like tissues obtained from soybean aleurone layers include glycine-rich protein.