Epidermal cell interactions: a case for local talk

Epidermal cell interactions play an important role in reproduction, creating variation in floral structure and modulating gametophyte selection and growth during pollination. Recent progress in understanding the processes by which epidermal cells become responsive to contact, indicate that the developmental quiescence of the epidermis is regulated by a set of genes, some of which modulate the permeability properties of the cell wall and cuticle. Research on mutants of Arabidopsis has revealed a mechanistic uniformity between two processes involving epidermis-mediated interactions that had hitherto been considered to be biologically distinct: postgenital organ fusion and pollen hydration.