Team effort: Combinatorial control of seed maturation by transcription factors

Abstract

Seed development is under tight spatiotemporal regulation. Here, we summarize how transcriptional regulation helps shape the major traits during seed maturation, which include storage reserve accumulation, dormancy, desiccation tolerance, and longevity. The regulation is rarely a solo task by an individual transcription factor (TF). Rather, it often involves coordinated recruitment or replacement of multiple TFs to achieve combinatorial regulation. We highlight recent progress on the transcriptional integration of activation and repression of seed maturation genes, and discuss potential research directions to further understand the TF networks of seed maturation.

Keywords: ABA.; Combinatorial regulation; Seed maturation; Transcription factor.