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Molecular Plant Advance Access published online on May 11, 2009
Molecular Plant, doi:10.1093/mp/ssp027
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© The Author 2009. Published by the Molecular Plant Shanghai Editorial Office in association with Oxford University Press on behalf of CSPP and IPPE, SIBS, CAS.

An Epigenetic Perspective on Developmental Regulation of Seed Genes

Heng Zhang and Joe Ogas1

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


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