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BioMed Central, BMC Biology, 1(13), 2015

DOI: 10.1186/s12915-015-0219-0

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What are karrikins and how were they ‘discovered’ by plants?

Journal article published in 2015 by Gavin R. Flematti, Kingsley W. Dixon ORCID, Steven M. Smith ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Karrikins are a family of compounds produced by wildfires that can stimulate the germination of dormant seeds of plants from numerous families. Seed plants could have ‘discovered’ karrikins during fire-prone times in the Cretaceous period when flowering plants were evolving rapidly. Recent research suggests that karrikins mimic an unidentified endogenous compound that has roles in seed germination and early plant development. The endogenous signalling compound is presumably not only similar to karrikins, but also to the related strigolactone hormones.