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Nature 446, 151-152 (8 March 2007) | doi:10.1038/446151a; Published online 7 March 2007

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Plant biology: The force from without

Ben Scheres1

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It seems that the epidermis is the cell layer through which growth-promoting plant hormones called brassinosteroids exert their effect on cell expansion — a finding that puts a new perspective on classical views of plant growth.

Brassinosteroids are growth-promoting plant hormones, and their absence, or the absence of their main transmembrane receptor protein, creates dwarfed plants. In the past few years, both the brassinosteroid biosynthetic pathway and the molecular signalling route from the brassinosteroid receptor to intracellular gene-transcription factors have been elucidated1, 2.

  1. Ben Scheres is in the Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
    Email: b.scheres@bio.uu.nl

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