Seeds directly or indirectly supply the majority of human nutrition. Seed traits are important for the normal functioning of the ecosystem and seeds are also impacted by environmental stress. We use genetic, genomic, and epigenomic tools to understand how parents and the environmental conditions they encounter can control seed development.

We have previously discovered that the RNA dependent DNA methylation pathway mediates parent of origin effects on seed development. I have also helped demonstrate how DNA methylation can modify seed traits.

Publications on seeds

Satyaki PRV, Gehring M (2022) RNA Pol IV induces antagonistic parent-of-origin effects on Arabidopsis endosperm. PLOS Biology 20(4): e3001602.

Satyaki PRV, Mary Gehring (2019) Paternally Acting Canonical RNA-Directed DNA Methylation Pathway Genes Sensitize Arabidopsis Endosperm to Paternal Genome Dosage, The Plant Cell, Volume 31, Issue 7, July 2019, Pages 1563–1578, https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00047

Pignatta D, Novitzky K, Satyaki PRV, Gehring M (2018) A variably imprinted epiallele impacts seed development. PLOS Genetics 14(11): e1007469. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1007469

Erdmann, R. M., P. R. V., Satyaki, M., & Klosinska, M. (2017). A Small RNA Pathway Mediates Allelic Dosage in Endosperm. Cell Reports., 21(12), 3364–3372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2017.11.078

Satyaki, P. R. V., & Gehring, M. (2017). DNA methylation and imprinting in plants: machinery and mechanisms. Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 52(2), 163–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409238.2017.1279119

Mary Gehring, P.R. Satyaki, Endosperm and Imprinting, Inextricably Linked, Plant Physiology, Volume 173, Issue 1, January 2017, Pages 143–154, https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.16.01353