Effect of abscisic acid on the germination of wild-type and cer10 mutant Arabidopsis thaliana seeds

Abstract

A mutation of the cer10 gene expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana results in decreased cuticle wax accumulation, which in turn inhibits the growth of the plant. Abscisic acid (ABA) promotes the accumulation of wax by using functional proteins and also promotes growth of the plant. This study examines the effect of ABA on the growth rate of the hypocotyl of the mutant and wild-type A. thaliana seeds. Five different treatments of ABA (0µM, 2µM, 20µM, 100µM, and 200µM) were applied to both wild-type and mutant seeds for a period of 11 days. . The difference in growth of the hypocotyls of wild-type and mutant seeds yielded a p-value of 0.00024 using a two-way ANOVA test, indicating that the expression of the cer10 gene has a significant effect on hypocotyl growth in wild-type and mutant seeds over a period of 11 days. The impact of the ABA treatments on A. thaliana resulted in a p-value of 2.74 x 10^-14, which indicated that the ABA treatments did, in fact, affect hypocotyl growth. Comparing the germination rates with and without ABA within wild-type and mutant seeds yielded a p-value of 3.89 x 10^-6. This result indicates that increasing concentrations of ABA led to decreasing hypocotyl growth for the seeds.