Abstract

Many of the living organisms, both plants and animals, pass over during their life-cycle into a state of 'rest' or 'quiescencce' under certain conditions, generally adverse, and regain their normal activity when restored to their original conditions. This state of rest is normally characterised by low physiclogical activity and the biochemical processes are reversibly arrested for different periods of time. It is referred to as viable lifelessness, suspended animation or the widely used term, 'anabiosis', which has been reviewed recently by Keilin (1959). Dormancy, which is classified under hypobiosis (low activity), includes hibernation', 'aestivation', 'diapause' and 'quiescence of animal organisms, as also the 'rest' period in seeds, buds and spores of plant life. Dormancy in seeds and buds of higher plants has been under review from time to time in view of its theoretical and practical importance; the more recent reviews are included in Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, Vol. 15 (1965), in Annual Review of Plant Physiology (Vegis, 1964), and in the monograph on The germination of seeds by A. M. Mayer and A. P. Mayber (1963)

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