The decision to germinate is regulated by divergent molecular networks in spores and seeds

What is it about?

This paper shows that moss spores and Arabidopsis seeds can respond to the same inhibitory environmental cues, namely far-red light and high temperature, during germination. However, we also demonstrate that the hormonal networks that mediate these responses are not the same in spores and seeds, and our data suggests the existence of a completely novel hormone signaling pathway mediating these responses in early-diverging, spore-bearing land plants.

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Why is it important?

The work suggests that new plant hormones, or hormone networks, remain to be discovered in the earliest-diverging land plants.

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