As a highly developed tissue, maize endosperm accumulates nutrients abundantly and supports embryo development. In a recent study, we constructed a regulatory network centered around Opaque11 (O11). This network unified cellular development, nutrient metabolism and stress responses during endosperm development. Here we discuss the evidences that O11 might have a regulatory role in cold stress response during seed development. Furthermore, we discuss the functional divergence between maize O11 and its Arabidopsis orthologue ZHOUPI, which might explain some of the differences in endosperm development between monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous seeds.
Keywords: Maize; ZHOUPI; cold stress response; endosperm development; nutrient metabolism; regulatory network.