Natural Variation in the Degree of Autonomous Endosperm Formation Reveals Independence and Constraints of Embryo Growth During Seed Development in Arabidopsis thaliana
- 1 June 2008
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Genetics
- Vol. 179 (2), 829-841
- https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.107.084889
Abstract
Seed development in flowering plants is a paradigm for the coordination of different tissues during organ growth. It requires a tight interplay between the two typically sexually produced structures: the embryo, developing from the fertilized egg cell, and the endosperm, originating from a fertilized central cell, along with the surrounding maternal tissues. Little is known about the presumptive signal transduction pathways administering and coordinating these different tissues during seed growth and development. Recently, a new signal has been identified emanating from the fertilization of the egg cell that triggers central cell proliferation without prior fertilization. Here, we demonstrate that there exists a large natural genetic variation with respect to the outcome of this signaling process in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. By using a recombinant inbred line population between the two Arabidopsis accessions Bayreuth-0 and Shahdara, we have identified two genetic components that influence the development of unfertilized endosperm. Exploiting this natural variation, we could further dissect the interdependence of embryo and endosperm growth during early seed development. Our data show an unexpectedly large degree of independence in embryo growth, but also reveal the embryo's developmental restrictions with respect to endosperm size. This work provides a genetic framework for dissection of the interplay between embryo and endosperm during seed growth in plants.Keywords
This publication has 61 references indexed in Scilit:
- Arabidopsis GLAUCEpromotes fertilization-independent endosperm development and expression of paternally inherited allelesDevelopment, 2007
- The Female Gametophyte and the Endosperm Control Cell Proliferation and Differentiation of the Seed Coat inArabidopsisPlant Cell, 2006
- Partially redundant functions of two SET-domain polycomb-group proteins in controlling initiation of seed development in ArabidopsisProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2006
- Distribution of genetic variation within and among local populations of Arabidopsis thaliana over its species rangeMolecular Ecology, 2006
- Arabidopsis CDKA;1, a cdc2 homologue, controls proliferation of generative cells in male gametogenesisThe Plant Journal, 2006
- A census of mammalian imprintingTrends in Genetics, 2005
- The Pattern of Polymorphism in Arabidopsis thalianaPLoS Biology, 2005
- Paternally inherited transgenes are down‐regulated but retain low activity during early embryogenesis in ArabidopsisFEBS Letters, 2001
- Genomic imprinting in endosperm: its effect on seed development in crosses between species, and its implications for the evolution of apomixisPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 1991
- Negative regulation of the Arabidopsis homeotic gene AGAMOUS by the APETALA2 productCell, 1991