Hormonal regulation of seed development, dormancy, and germination studied by genetic control

In comparison to other groups of organisms like bacteria, fungi, and insects, progress in the study of genetic control of plant growth and development has been rather slow, in spite of the large numbers of mutants with aberrant patterns in growth and development that were available. This situation might have been due to the black box that separated phenotype and mechanism. Recently, interest in developmental mutants of higher plants has increased, since procedures have become available for analysis at the biochemical and molecular level. The restriction to the model plants maize and Arabidopsis, with rice and tomato as alternatives, has greatly stimulated development in this area of research.</p