Plant development: from sessile to fertile

Despite tremendous progress since the birth of the field in the mid-1980s, plant developmental biologists have not yet deciphered the life cycle of plants at a level that one could expect from the relatively uncomplicated plant body plan. Part of the logic of plant development is similar to the principles uncovered in animals. However, specific plant features, such as the intricate connections between development and the environment, and the properties of the cell wall invoke special regulatory needs that we only partially understand. In this Spotlight, I discuss how these features give rise to hurdles for the progress needed to bring the field to fruition, both intellectually and for the sake of agricultural applications, and propose how such hurdles can be overcome.