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Endosperm development

An actin starry night regulates seed size

Nature Plants volume 9, pages 201–202 (2023)Cite this article

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In Arabidopsis, the final size of the seed is determined early on during its development by the growth of a single multinucleate cell, the coenocytic endosperm. The endosperm arises from a second fertilization event, alongside the embryo, and dominates the onset of seed development while later nourishing and supporting embryo growth.

In plant sexual reproduction, the seed is responsible for the dispersal of the progeny in the form of a zygotic embryo1. Nevertheless, the embryo has no or little say in determining seed size, a character that underlies different plant adaptive strategies as well as being fundamental to our own food security. In Arabidopsis, seed size is indeed established during the very first days following fertilization, when the embryo undergoes relatively slow growth2. These early days of seed development are dominated by the growth of the endosperm (the second fertilization product), which makes no genetic contribution to the next plant generation but nourishes and supports the embryo3. The endosperm starts its development as a coenocyte, a single cell that undergoes several nuclear divisions without cytokinesis, followed by a phase of cellularization, differentiation and cell death. Genetic analyses in Arabidopsis have shown that the duration of the endosperm coenocytic phase positively correlates with seed size: the longer the coenocytic endosperm develops, the bigger the seed will be, whereas precocious endosperm cellularization gives rise to a relatively smaller seed2. In this issue of Nature Plants, Ali et al. showed that F-actin dynamics in the coenocytic endosperm affects seed size regardless of the time of endosperm cellularization, thus shedding new light on an old problem with enormous agronomical repercussions4.

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Fig. 1: Effect of fragmentation and overexpression of F-actin on seed size.

References

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  1. IJPB, INRAE, Versailles, France

    Wenjia Xu & Enrico Magnani

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  1. Wenjia Xu
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  2. Enrico Magnani
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Correspondence to Enrico Magnani.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Xu, W., Magnani, E. An actin starry night regulates seed size. Nat. Plants 9, 201–202 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01341-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-023-01341-z

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