Molecular Biology of Plant Seed Development
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 6320
Special Issue Editor
Interests: maize breeding; genetics; genomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Seed is one of the best focused organs, and is of great economic importance because of its role in feed, food and biofuel production. A developing seed involves three genetically distinct structures: the endosperm, the embryo, and the seed coat. The endosperm mainly contains starch and a few proteins providing nutrients for developing embryo. The embryo mainly contains oil and proteins with five major components including the shoot apical meristem, hypocotyl, root meristem, root cap, and cotyledons. Seed coat, the outer layer of a seed, provides protection for the endosperm and embryo from various forms of harm. These three structures were derived from fertilization, as well as apomixis or asexual reproduction. Many efforts have been made by scientists worldwide in improving seed size and quality, making seed a basic nutrient resource and a functional food for humans and livestock. It is, therefore, not surprising that more and more studies have been performed on uncovering the genetic regulation processes during seed development. Nevertheless, there are still lots of scientific concerns underlying the seed development need to be investigated. For example, the interactions among the embryo, endosperm and seed coat, as well as regulatory networks involved in seed filling and development.
The purpose of this Special Issue is to report on topics relate but not limited to recent and innovative findings regarding different aspects of plant seed, mainly focusing on molecular mechanisms regulating seed size, seed shape, and seed composition. Accordingly, we aim to collect original research manuscripts including: 1) functional investigations on new regulators and mechanisms of seed size or shape or seed components; 2) signal communications among endosperm, embryo, and seed coat; 3) bioinformatics methods elucidating the regulatory networks underlying seed development.
Dr. Weibin Song
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- regulatory mechanisms
- transcription factors
- epigenome regulators
- signal communications
- plant seed
- seed size
- seed shape
- seed quality