Abstract
Seeds are essential for human civilization, so understanding the molecular events underpinning seed development and the zygotic embryo it contains is important. In addition, the approach of somatic embryogenesis is a critical propagation and regeneration strategy to increase desirable genotypes, to develop new genetically modified plants to meet agricultural challenges, and at a basic science level, to test gene function. We briefly review some of the transcription factors (TFs) involved in establishing primary and apical meristems during zygotic embryogenesis, as well as TFs necessary and/or sufficient to drive somatic embryo programs. We focus on the model plant Arabidopsis for which many tools are available, and review as well as speculate about comparisons and contrasts between zygotic and somatic embryo processes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3743-3767 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Biochemical Journal |
| Volume | 477 |
| Issue number | 19 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We apologize to all of our colleagues who have generated excellent data that we could not discuss or cite due to space constraints. We would like to thank our anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions to strengthen this review. We are grateful to Ms. Jeanne Hartman for valuable comments on the manuscript, and Ms. Ju-young (Gloria) Yoon for the generation of Figure 1. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (grant no. IOS-1656380 to S.E.P.) and by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Hatch project (S.E.P.) under accession number 1013409. No conflict of interest is declared.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s).
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology
- Cell Biology