Help! My Arabidopsis seeds did not germinate under dark

[Yiji Xia]

Dear Arabinetter:
I have failed to germinate Arabidopsis seeds under 
dark condition. The treatment is as follows.
The seeds was harvested from a transgenic plant 
(transformed by a report gene) which was originally 
derived from a cross of Ler and Col. Two week after 
harvesting, about 20 seeds were put on a wet filter 
paper, sealed in a plate, covered with alumiun foil, 
and put them at 4C for 2 day. Then I left them at room 
temperature. After 10 days, although    most of 
control seeds (treated same way except not covered 
with alumiun foil) germinated, none of the seeds under 
dark germinated. I repeated once later and got the 
same result. I don't want to try again before I solve 
the problem as I have limited number of the transgenic 
seeds. 
Could anyone give any suggestion? Did I do something 
wrong? Is light reguired for germination under some 
situation (for example, for newly harvested seeds)? 
or???

Yiji Xia
B420 Agronomy, ISU
Ames, IA50011
515-294-1659