A few hours of fumigation will easily eliminate a home's pest infestation. However, one has to choose other means of pest control if the home's residents cannot relocate. The same issue underpins selective nuclear elimination in multinucleate cells. Recently, we reported a novel cell elimination strategy in early developing seeds of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana; a large embryo-nourishin...

The maize seed comprises two major compartments, the embryo and the endosperm, both originating from the double fertilization event. The embryogenetic process allows the formation of a well-differentiated embryonic axis, surrounded by a single massive cotyledon, the scutellum. The mature endosperm constitutes the bulk of the seed and comprises specific regions containing reserve proteins, compl...

In the exalbuminous species Arabidopsis thaliana, seed maturation is accompanied by the deposition of oil and storage proteins and the reduction of the endosperm to one cell layer. Here, we consider reserve partitioning between embryo and endosperm compartments. The pattern of deposition, final amount, and composition of these reserves differ between the two compartments, with the embryo repres...

The endosperm is an ephemeral tissue surrounding the embryo that is essential for its development. Aside from the embryo nourishing function, the endosperm serves as a battlefield for epigenetic processes that have been hypothesized to reinforce transposable element silencing in the embryo. Specifically, global DNA demethylation in the central cell may serve to produce small RNAs that migrate t...

Endosperm and embryo development are coordinated via epigenetic regulation and signaling between these tissues. In maize (Zea mays), the endosperm-embryo signals are not known, but endosperm cellularization is a key event for embryos to form shoots and roots. We screened seed mutants for nonautonomous functions in endosperm and embryo development with genetically nonconcordant seeds and identif...

Seed production in angiosperms requires tight coordination of the development of the embryo and the endosperm. The endosperm-specific transcription factor ZHOUPI has previously been shown to play a key role in this process, by regulating both endosperm breakdown and the formation of the embryonic cuticle. To what extent these processes are functionally linked is, however, unclear. In order to a...

Endosperm traits are trisomic inheritant and are of great economic importance because they are usually directly related to grain quality. Mapping for quantitative trait loci (QTL) underlying endosperm traits can provide an efficient way to genetically improve grain quality. As the traditional QTL mapping methods (diploid methods) are usually designed for traits under diploid control, they are n...

The programmed regulation of carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes is associated with an increase in the production of starch in rice endosperm (4, 5). The increase in starch-branching enzyme, or Q-enzyme, plays a critical role in the initiation and regulation of the biochemical process of starch accumulation in rice endosperm (4) (Table I). Q-enzyme catalyzes the synthesis of amylopectin by introd...

Triploid plants of neem were obtained by immature endosperm culture. Immature seeds, at the early dicotyledonous stage of embryo development, is the best explant to raise endosperm callus on MS + NAA (5 mumol/L) + BAP (2 mumol/L) + CH (500 mg L-1). Maximum shoot bud differentiation from the endosperm callus occurred on MS + 5 mumol/L BAP. Shoots were multiplied by forced axillary branching and ...

Spatial occurrence of endoreduplication, a variant of the cell cycle resulting in endopolyploidy, was investigated in the developing sorghum caryopsis between 5 and 16 DAP (days after pollination). This was a period of intense mitotic and endoreduplication-associated endosperm growth. Endopolyploidy was quantitatively analyzed on median caryopsis sections using image densitometry that provided ...