https://phys.org/news/2018-07-maternal-embryo.html

The authors then show that this increased maternal auxin production is crucial for the embryo—when auxin production is interrupted, the embryo does not develop correctly. And it is specifically maternal auxin that plays this important role. When the researchers set up a cross between plants so that the mother does not produce auxin but the embryo does, the same defects in embryo development are seen—proving that auxin from the mother is the key developmental signal.

However, auxin is not the only maternal signal influencing the embryo, Friml explains: "When we stop the supply of auxin from the mother to the embryo, the embryo grows abnormally, but it still manages to develop somehow. This means that there must be another, auxin-independent, signal." The paper is a collaboration between Jiri Friml and his group, notably Helene S. Robert, a previous Post-doc of Friml and now group leader at CEITEC in Brno, and the group of Thomas Laux at the University of Freiburg.

                                                            
                                    
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