Embryos of higher plants develop synchronously with and along a growth axis aligned to the surrounding maternal tissues. The signaling mechanisms coordinating embryo and mother development have been a long-standing question in plant biology. We have completed the experimental work and we wish to publish our results revealing that mother utilizes the phytohormone auxin to signal for early embryo development in Arabidopsis in Nature Plants journal. Currently we are in process of revision,. In submitted manuscript we demonstrate that the phytohormone auxin is synthesized in maternal ovule tissue and that auxin response increases after pollination in Arabidopsis and maize, suggesting a conserved mechanism. We further show that ovule-produced auxin acts as a maternal signal for embryo development. After being transported to the apical daughter cell of the divided zygote, the maternal auxin triggers its specification as embryo precursor cell. Our data provide mechanistical insight into maternal sporophyte-embryo communication, and identify a mechanism that ensures coordinated embryo development within the context of the maternal organism.
My SoMoPro project financially supporting this work finished in December 2016. The manuscript presenting the above mentioned data was submitted to Nature Plants and we are now working to answer the reviewers’ comments. This GAMU E application will support the costs required to address this revision. The costs include the personal costs, consumables and publication fees.

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