Gene regulation by the seed maturation master regulators, LEC1, LEC2, FUS3 and ABI3 [set 1]

During seed maturation, the embryo accumulates nutrition storage compounds such as oil and reserve proteins, and acquires dormancy and desiccation tolerance. Arabidopsis transcription factors LEC1, LEC2, FUS3 and ABI3 are known as the master regulators of seed maturation because all these events during the seed maturation are severely affected by the respective mutants. In addition, the lec1, lec2 and fus3 mutants exhibit some heterochronic characteristics, as exemplified by the development of true leaf-like cotyledons during embryogenesis. To characterize these mutants at the whole genome expression level, microarray experiments were performed. Developing seeds were dissected from the siliques of the lec1-1, lec2-1, or fus3-3 homozygous plants or the respective wild type plants (Col-0 for fus3-3, WS for lec1-1 and lec2-1) at 8 and 12 days after flowering. Seeds samples were obtained from triplicate batches of plants and used for RNA preparation.