Nature Communications (Nov 2018)
Clearance of maternal barriers by paternal miR159 to initiate endosperm nuclear division in Arabidopsis
Abstract
Seed development in plants is triggered by entry of sperm to the ovule. Here, Zhao et al. uncover miR159 as a paternal-trigger of seed development that is transmitted to the central cell where it represses expression of maternal targets to promote nuclear division in the endosperm.