Researchers in Cologne discover signals between plant embryos and their endosperm.A large portion of plant seeds is endosperm. It has the important task of nourishing the plant embryo during the early stages of its development. In flowering plants, there is a complicated double-fertilisation mechanism that arises among embryos and endosperm. They develop together into mature seeds. The exact process, and the communication between the two parts of the seeds, has been unclear to scientists. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research and the University of Cologne have, however, isolated a mutant where there is only one single fertilisation. In a recent online edition of the journal Nature Genetics (November 28, 2005) they explain that this single fertilisation, which creates an embryo, also triggers the development of endosperm, even when the central cell where endosperm develops is not fertilised.
