Hans Kende*, Kent J. Bradford, David A. Brummell, Hyung-Taeg Cho, Daniel J. Cosgrove, Andrew J. Fleming, Chris Gehring, Yi Lee, Simon McQueen-Mason, Jocelyn K.C. Rose and Laurentius A.C.J. Voesenek MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA (*author for correspondence; e-mail hkende@msu.edu); Seed Biotechnology Center, University of California, Davis CA 95616, USA; Crop and Food Research, Private Bag 11600, Palmerston North, 5301, New Zealand; School of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea; Department of Biology, 208 Mueller Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA; Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK; University of the Western Cape, Department of Biotechnology, Private Bag X17, Bellville 7535, South Africa; Department of Tobacco Science, Chungbuk National University, 48 Gaesin-dong Hungduk-ku, Chongju 361-763, Republic of Korea; Biology Department, University of York, PO Box 373, York, YO10 5YW, UK; Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA; Plant Ecophysiology, Utrecht University, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands