Jerzy Pniewski and Leopold Infeld Colloquium

The Jerzy Pniewski and Leopold Infeld Colloquium of the Faculty of Physics will be held in room 0.06 on Monday, May 25, at 11:00 AM.

The lecture entitled:
"How Seeds Decide to Germinate"
will be delivered by:
dr hab. Szymon Świeżewski, prof. IBB PAN Laboratory of Seed Molecular Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics PAS, Warsaw, Poland

Seeds germinate when they recognize that the surrounding conditions will be favorable for the development of the sprout they produce, and later the plant. The mechanism that allows seeds—which, after all, do not havetheir own metabolism—to recognize that the optimal time for germination has arrived is still the subject of research. The lecture will provide insight into the current understanding of this topic.

The lecture will be held in English.

Before the Colloquium, from 10.30 AM, please join us for informal discussions over coffee and cakes in the lobby outside room 0.06.

The next Colloquium — the last one of this academic year — will take place on June 8, 2026.

With best regards,

Barbara Badełek
Jan Chwedeńczuk
Jan Suffczyński

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Abstract:

"How Seeds Decide to Germinate"

dr hab. Szymon Świeżewski, prof. IBB PAN Laboratory of Seed Molecular Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics PAS, Warsaw, Poland

For most plants, seeds represent the most resistant form of life. Seed germination, which marks the exit from this phase, is an irreversible decision. Interestingly, seeds have evolved the ability not togerminate even when conditions are permissive. This allows seeds to ignore short episodes of favourable conditions that would not last long enough to support the whole plant life cycle. During the lecture,I will discuss our surprising discovery that these mechanisms are often mediated by RNA acting outside its canonical function as an intermediate in the information flow between DNA and proteins.

Download the poster