To Grow or not to Grow?

Abstract

The seed to seedling transition in plants is initiated following the termination of seed dormancy. Here, I present a simplified developmental framework describing the events underlying this transition. I discuss putative mechanisms of signal integration and their relation to a global developmental fate switch in seeds within this framework. I delineate the events that occur before and after the flipping of this switch, marking an important distinction between these different developmental states. To end, I propose that the final fate switch resides within the embryo, and is informed by the endosperm in arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). This framework can serve as a template to focus future research in seed science.

Keywords: developmental fate; developmental threshold; dormancy; phase transition; seed; signal integration.