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Seed Development: OMICS Technologies toward Improvement of Seed Quality and Crop Yield pp 407–432Cite as

Metabolic Specialization of Maternal and Filial Tissues

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Abstract

The seed consists of three principal components of maternal (seed coats) or zygotic (embryo and endosperm) origin with distinct functions, but that interplay throughout their development to ensure the accumulation of storage compounds for successful germination and early seedling growth. The reserves stored in mature seeds represent major human and livestock food sources. Therefore, much research and breeding efforts are concentrated on optimizing seed quality and yield. The principal filial storage organ differs between species. For example, it is the endosperm for cereal grains accumulating high amount of starch, and the embryo for protein-rich legume seeds. These organs are surrounded by tissues of maternal and/or zygotic origin, depending on the species, which represent a protective barrier and play a role in furnishing the filial organ with nutrients and oxygen. Seed tissues and cell types have been individually studied by the omics approaches with a view to dissecting the molecular processes underlying reserve accumulation. The most comprehensive analyses have been performed at the transcriptome and/or proteome levels in various species, including Medicago, soybean, Arabidopsis, sugar beet, barley, wheat, maize, rice, and tomato. Here, we report the division of metabolic activities between seed tissues, based on the identification and ontological classification of gene products differentially accumulated between seed tissues. The work allowed metabolic networks to be proposed in specific tissue-types and regulatory factors to be identified, two fundamental tasks in systems biology, with an ultimate goal to undertake a computational reconstruction of tissue-specific metabolic models.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA (National Institute for Agronomic Research), UMR 1347 Agroécologie, BP 86510, 21065, Dijon, France

    Hélène Zuber, Mélanie Noguero, Christine Le Signor, Richard Thompson & Karine Gallardo

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  1. Hélène Zuber
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  2. Mélanie Noguero
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  3. Christine Le Signor
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  4. Richard Thompson
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  5. Karine Gallardo
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Correspondence to Karine Gallardo .

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  1. RLABB, Sanepa, Lalitpur, Nepal

    Ganesh K. Agrawal

  2. , Biology, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305-8572, Japan

    Randeep Rakwal

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Zuber, H., Noguero, M., Le Signor, C., Thompson, R., Gallardo, K. (2012). Metabolic Specialization of Maternal and Filial Tissues. In: Agrawal, G., Rakwal, R. (eds) Seed Development: OMICS Technologies toward Improvement of Seed Quality and Crop Yield. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4749-4_20

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