Light-Controlled Seed Germination: Molecular Integration With Environmental Signals

Seed germination is a critical developmental transition in plants, tightly regulated by a multitude of environmental factors. Light serves as a central coordinator, integrating with other signals like temperature and water availability to precisely control the timing of germination. This review synthesises recent advances in the molecular understanding of light-mediated germination, with a focus on the roles of photoreceptors, core E3 ubiquitin ligase complexes, key transcriptional regulators and epigenetic modifications in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We further propose integrative models that delineate how light signalling converges with temperature and water pathways to regulate dormancy release and germination initiation. A deeper mechanistic knowledge of how seeds process and integrate these environmental cues is crucial for manipulating and optimising plant establishment in changing environments.