Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) seeds var. Grand Rapids could be maintained many weeks in the dark without germination. Following illumination with white light, a gradual increase in polyribosome population up to the time of germination was demonstrated by sucrose gradient centrifugation. Polysomes could not be detected in imbibed seeds maintained continuously in the dark. Thus, polysome formation and therefore the capacity for a high rate of protein synthesis required for germination and growth, is not associated with the process of imbibition, but is dependent upon the seeds having received the dormancy-breaking stimulus of illumination.