Boccaccini, A.; Cimini, S.; Kazmi, H.; Lepri, A.; Longo, C.; Lorrai, R.; Vittorioso, P. When Size Matters: New Insights on How Seed Size Can Contribute to the Early Stages of Plant Development. Plants2024, 13, 1793.
Boccaccini, A.; Cimini, S.; Kazmi, H.; Lepri, A.; Longo, C.; Lorrai, R.; Vittorioso, P. When Size Matters: New Insights on How Seed Size Can Contribute to the Early Stages of Plant Development. Plants 2024, 13, 1793.
Boccaccini, A.; Cimini, S.; Kazmi, H.; Lepri, A.; Longo, C.; Lorrai, R.; Vittorioso, P. When Size Matters: New Insights on How Seed Size Can Contribute to the Early Stages of Plant Development. Plants2024, 13, 1793.
Boccaccini, A.; Cimini, S.; Kazmi, H.; Lepri, A.; Longo, C.; Lorrai, R.; Vittorioso, P. When Size Matters: New Insights on How Seed Size Can Contribute to the Early Stages of Plant Development. Plants 2024, 13, 1793.
Abstract
The seed habit is the most complex and successful method of sexual reproduction in vascular plants. It represents a remarkable moment in the evolution of plants that afterwards spread on land. In particular, seed size had a pivotal role as for evolutionary success and agronomic trait, especially in the field of crop domestication. Given that crop seeds constitute one of the primary products for consumption, it follows that seed size represents a fundamental determinant of crop yield. This adaptative feature is strictly controlled by genetic traits from both maternal and zygotic tissues, although seed development and growth are also affected by environmental cues.
Despite being a highly exploited topic for both basic and applied research, there are still many issues to be elucidated as for developmental biology as well as for agronomic science. This review addresses a number of open questions related to cues that influence seed growth and size, and how developmental processes are influenced by them. Besides, new insights on the genetic-molecular control of this adaptive trait are presented.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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