Abstract
How the embryo and endosperm interact during seed development is an important subject for elucidating mechanisms of bothembryo genesis and endosperm development. We have identified a single temperature-sensitive mutation, embryoless 1 (eml1), affecting both embryo and endosperm development. At a high temperature, eml1 causes embryoless seeds containing large endosperm. Rarely, small embryos with or without organs are formed. At a low temperature, however, the frequency of embryoless seeds drops and seeds are often detected which contain a large embryo and a defective or no endosperm. Thus, in this mutant, embryo size is negatively correlated with endosperm size. Temperature-shift experiments suggest that this mutant becomes insensitive to the temperature change after 4 days post pollination. Accordingly, the seed phenotype of this mutant would be temperature-dependently determined before 4 days after pollination. The negative correlation in size between embryo and endosperm suggests that they developmentally interact from the early stage of seed formation.
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