Smoking out weeds with karrikinolide

Karrikinolide (KAR₁) is a smoke-derived chemical that can trigger seeds to germinate, and shows promise as a tool for flushing out weed seeds from the soil seed bank. Long et al. demonstrate that weeds of Brassicaceae are particularly responsive to KAR₁, and that  these responses are complex and transient: light and temperature conditions, dormancy state and seed lot all influence sensitivity to KAR₁, and a response to KAR₁ can be induced. Three ‘response-types’ are proposed for assessing the effects of KAR₁ on seeds: inherent, inducible and undetected. All 15 seed lots in this study fall into the first two categories, so KAR₁ has a clear potential for managing weeds of Brassicaceae.