Molecular Plant Advance Access originally published online on May 11, 2009
Molecular Plant 2009 2(4):610-627; doi:10.1093/mp/ssp027
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An Epigenetic Perspective on Developmental Regulation of Seed Genes
Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2063, USA
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail ogas{at}purdue.edu, fax 765-494-7897, tel. 765-496-3969.
The developmental program of seeds is promoted by master regulators that are expressed in a seed-specific manner. Ectopic expression studies reveal that expression of these master regulators and other transcriptional regulators is sufficient to promote seed-associated traits, including generation of somatic embryos. Recent work highlights the importance of chromatin-associated factors in restricting expression of seed-specific genes, in particular PcG proteins and ATP-dependent remodelers. This review summarizes what is known regarding factors that promote zygotic and/or somatic embryogenesis and the chromatin machinery that represses their expression. Characterization of the regulation of seed-specific genes reveals that plant chromatin-based repression systems exhibit broad conservation with and surprising differences from animal repression systems.
Key Words: Epigenetics chromatin Polycomb group proteins LEAFY COTYLEDON developmental identity Arabidopsis seed development