Seed dormancy has been defined as the incapacity of a viable
seed to germinate under favorable conditions (Bewley, 1997;Finch-Savage and Leubner–Metzger, 2006).
Dormancy in Arabidopsis should be described as physiologically non-deep, meaning that embryos released from surrounding structures grow normally, and that dormancy is lost through moist chilling (stratification) or after-ripening (Baskin and Baskin, 2004).
However, in addition to the testa and endosperm layer surrounding the embryo, the growth potential of the embryo is also important to overcome the constraint of these structures and thereby affects the dormancy state of a seed (Kucera et al., 2006).