Fruit and Seed Development

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to contribute to the Special Issue, “Fruit and Seed Development”.

After fertilization, the ovary of the flower usually develops into fruit. The fruit encloses the seeds containing developing embryos. There are many types of fruits, depending on their origin and texture—the sweet tissue of the strawberry, the red flesh of the tomato, the shell of the coconut, and the hull of corn are all fruits.

Embryo and seed development is a pivotal process in the lifecycle of an angiosperm. It is initiated by the development of both gametophytes and their interactions, followed by the process of double fertilization when two pollen tube-released sperm cells fuse with female gametes. This leads to the development of the embryo and the endosperm. The endosperm, as a nutrient supplier, exerts a profound influence on embryonic growth, but this effect also acts from reverse direction. Embryo and seed development is a complex process involving the coordinated growth of maternal and zygotic tissues regulated by the integrated action of transcriptional, epigenetic, hormonal, and metabolite signalling regulators. A typical seed contains a seed coat, cotyledons, endosperm, and a single embryo. Mature seeds often enter a period of inactivity, known as dormancy, which may last for months, years, or even centuries.

The seed, which is a unit of plant reproduction, is an important source of human food and animal feedstock. Thus, seed size is a key component of seed yield traits and its optimization has been a major goal of plant breeding since the domestication of crop plants.

Being such a key process, fruit and seed development has been the focus of research which includes the use of mutants and multiple omics techniques in order to dissect the key genes involved in its regulation.

This Special Issue aims to provide up-to-date information on various aspects of sexual reproduction, including ovule development, pollen tube attraction, double fertilization, embryo, and seed and fruit development, both from theoretical and practical perspectives as well as considering cellular to molecular biology and genetics to agronomical aspects.

For this Special Issue, we welcome original research articles, reviews, and opinion articles.

Prof. Dr. Petr Smýkal
Prof. Dr. David Honys
Guest Editors

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