Communications Biology (Mar 2021)
Grain filling in barley relies on developmentally controlled programmed cell death
Abstract
Radchuk et al. report on the role of vacuolar processing enzymes (VPEs) in mediating programmed cell death (PCD) in the maternal tissues of a barley grain and influencing the delivery of assimilate to the endosperm. This study presents a means of increasing the efficiency of the grain filling process in the major cereal crop species by manipulating the timing of PCD.