Abstract
Little is known about the timing of the maternal-to-zygotic transition during seed development in flowering plants. Because plant embryos can develop from somatic cells or microspores1, maternal contributions are not considered to be crucial in early embryogensis2. Early-acting embryo-lethal mutants in Arabidopsis, includingemb30/gnom which affects the first zygotic division3,4, have fuelled the perception that both maternal and paternal genomes are active immediately after fertilization. Here we show that none of the paternally inherited alleles of 20 loci that we tested is expressed during early seed development in Arabidopsis. For genes that are expressed at later stages, the paternally inherited allele becomes active three to four days after fertilization. The genes that we tested are involved in various processes and distributed throughout the genome, indicating that most, if not all, of the paternal genome may be initially silenced. Our findings are corroborated by genetic studies showing that emb30/gnom has a maternal-effect phenotype that is paternally rescuable in addition to its zygotic lethality. Thus, contrary to previous interpretations, early embryo and endosperm development are mainly under maternal control.
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Acknowledgements
We thank J. Moore and W. Gagliano for help in generating transposants, J. Thomas, A. Coluccio and D. Page for technical assistance, E. Vollbrecht and M. Affolter for reviewing the manuscript, and R. Pruitt, V. Sundaresan and E. Vollbrecht for continuous interest in this project. This work was supported in part by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory President's Council, a grant from the NRICG Program of the US Department of Agriculture to U.G., a fellowship of the Fonds National Suisse de la Recherche Scientifique to J-P.V-C., and scholarships of the Janggen Poehn-Foundation and the Searle Family Trust to U.G.
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Vielle-Calzada, JP., Baskar, R. & Grossniklaus, U. Delayed activation of the paternal genome during seed development. Nature 404, 91–94 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35003595
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35003595
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