ShHTL7 requires functional brassinosteroid signaling to initiate GA-independent germination

In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, two mutually antagonistic hormones regulate germination: abscisic acid (ABA) which promotes dormancy and gibberellins (GA) which breaks dormancy. Mutants auxotrophic for or insensitive to GA do not germinate. However, changes in the signaling flux through other hormone pathways will permit GA-independent germination. These changes include increased brassinosteroid (BR) signaling and decreased ABA signaling. Recently, strigolactone (SL) was also shown to enable GA-independent germination, provided the seeds express the SL receptor ShHTL7 from the parasitic plant Striga hermonthica. Here we show that a mutation which reduces sensitivity to BR (bri1-6) prevents ShHTL7 from promoting GA-independent germination. Further, we show that neither ShHTL7 nor the constitutive karrikin signaling mutant smax1-2 confer insensitivity to ABA. These results suggest ShHTL7 requires functional BR perception to bypass the GA requirement for germination.