| The use of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) as a bioenergy crop is limited by seed dormancy, which makes it difficult to establish uniform stands of this perennial warm-season grass. Exogenous treatments with hydrogen peroxide have been reported to increase the germination percentage of switchgrass seeds, but the molecular mechanisms inducing these changes have not been elucidated. Using a 454 pyrosequencing approach, this study compared the transcriptomic expression patterns of seeds treated with H2O2 and seeds treated with water. Functional classification of the sequences was conducted using Gene Ontology terminology, but comparison of the larger GO categories showed no considerable differences between the two pools.;Analysis of transcription factors in each pool show that some families including C2H2, HD-Zip, and SPL were more abundant in seeds treated with H 2O2, while others such as JUMONJI and GRAS were more abundant in control seeds. The data obtained represent a starting point to understand the effect of H2O2 in dormancy alleviation of switchgrass seeds. Additional studies to identify the target genes of the TFs that were over or under-expressed in seeds treated with H2O2 are needed, in order to allow the discovery of molecular markers linked to loci regulating seed dormancy and dormancy alleviation. |
