Review: Endosperm and Imprinting

“The endosperm is often viewed as a complicated and rather strange tissue” begins this review by Gehring and Satyaki. They go on to describe that the endosperm is the site of expression of imprinted genes, which are genes that are expressed soley when inherited from the mother or father.  The authors summarize the unique epigenetic landscape of the endosperm, how imprinting occurs, and its functions in developmental and evolutionary contexts. Finally, they discuss our current understanding of imprinting in light of interspecies or interploidy hybrid seed viability. Plant Physiol.  10.1104/pp.16.01353