Plasticity of seed protein composition in response to nitrogen and sulfur availability

Seed composition is genetically programmed, but the implementation of that program is affected by many factors including the nutrition of the parent plant. In particular, seeds demonstrate a remarkable capacity to maintain nitrogen homeostasis in conditions of varying sulfur supply. They do this by altering the expression of individual genes encoding abundant storage proteins. The signal transduction pathways that modulate gene expression in seeds in response to N and S availability involve both transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms.