ArticleAnnals of botany2026
Seed fatty acid composition and physical dormancy in fire-prone ecosystems.
Article in Annals of botany, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsThe maintenance of seed banks and timing of germination are fundamental to ensuring population persistence. Physical dormancy (PY) in disturbance-prone environments contributes to these processes via an impermeable seed coat. Dormancy is broken often by heating, which in fire-prone regions is determined by species-specific threshold temperatures. However, the mechanisms by which seeds persist or control dormancy-breaking thresholds in such environments are unclear. We determined whether unsaturated and saturated fatty acids (FAs; within triacylglycerols), common lipids linked to heat-stress resilience, might contribute to seed coat dormancy and overall seed persistence, and whether fire selects for different FA compositions and drives PY function in fire-prone regions.
methodsWe characterized seed FA compositions of 26 Fabaceae species from fire-prone and fire-free ecosystems through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We compared FA saturation, total relative FA content and the highest melting point FA of each species across seed tissues (seed coat vs internal tissues) and habitat type (fire-prone vs fire-free) and, for fire-prone species, tested for a relationship with species-specific dormancy-breaking thresholds. KEY
resultsNo relationship between FA composition and species-specific dormancy-breaking thresholds was found. Seeds of fire-free species had more saturated FAs than fire-prone species, particularly for internal tissues. FA saturation was higher in seed coats than in internal tissues across both habitat types. Relative FA content was similar in internal tissues across habitat type but differed for seed coats, with fire-prone species having marginally more FAs.
conclusionsWhile no correlation existed between FA composition and dormancy-breaking thresholds in fire-prone species, the consistent differences between seed tissue types we found highlight a similar role for FAs in seed coats across habitats, probably linked to maintaining impermeability. Some evidence supports fire selecting for greater total FA content in seed coats, but further work is needed to test its relationship with temperature thresholds.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.