Gene regulation by the seed maturation master regulators, LEC1, LEC2, FUS3 and ABI3 [set 2]

During seed maturation, the embryo accumulates nutrition storage compounds such as oil and reservve proteins, and acquires dormancy and desiccation tolerance. Arabidopsis transcription factors LEC1, LEC2, FUS3 and ABI3 are known as the master regulators of seed maturation because all these events during the seed maturation are severely affected by the respective mutants. In addition, the lec1, lec2 and fus3 mutants exhibit some heterochronic characteristics, as exemplified by the development of true leaf-like cotyledons during embryogenesis. To characterize these mutants at the whole genome expression level, microarray experiments were performed.

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