Genetic, molecular and cellular approaches to the analysis of maize embryo development

The development of embryo structures in plants is essential for the formation of the adult plant organs. In cereals, this process has distinct features which have attracted attention from different points of view. Differential gene expression analyses have been used in order to identify genes useful as molecular markers of certain physiological, molecular or developmental processes. Several maize mutants affected in embryo development have been isolated, but only a fraction of them have been characterized at the molecular level. Molecular markers can be useful in the characterization of embryo defective mutants. Here, we describe the different techniques used in the identification of molecular marker genes for embryo development. We describe in more detail some groups of genes coding for cell wall proteins. We also describe the application of these molecular markers in the characterization of some embryo mutants.