Fig. 2

Sinapic acid promotes seed germination and early seedling growth in Arabidopsis. a Comparison of the germination rates of Arabidopsis seeds after exposure to different concentrations of sinapic acid for 2 d. Seeds were germinated and grown on MS medium with sinapic acid or mock-treatment (dimethyl sulfoxide, DMSO) as a control. b–d Seeds were germinated and grown on MS medium with 0.5 mM sinapic acid. The photographs were taken at 2 d (b), 8 d (c), and 20 d (d) after seed imbibition. e Quantitative analysis of root length after 0.5 mM sinapic acid treatment for 8 d. f Fresh weight (FW) biomass per five plants at different times for seedlings grown on MS medium with 0.5 mM sinapic acid. g Quantification of sinapoylcholine released from the wild-type seeds. After 2 d of treatment with 0.5 mM sinapic acid, sinapic acid esters were extracted from germinating seeds and sinapoylcholine was quantified by HPLC; DW, dry weight. h Sinapoylglucose and sinapoylmalate analyses in seedlings grown for 10 d after exogenous 0.5 mM sinapic acid treatment. Values are means ± SD of three independent experiments. Asterisks indicate significant changes compared with the mock (P < 0.05) calculated using Student’s t-test