Developmental arrest: from sea urchins to seeds

The phenomenon of dormancy extends beyond the boundaries of the plant kingdom. While plant biologists typically associate dormancy-breaking treatments only with seeds, buds or tubers, these chemicals and environmental stimuli have much broader activity as general terminators of developmental arrest in other, non-plant species. The activation of growth by these treatments is associated with signal transduction processes, metabolic upregulation and changes in gene expression, in addition to other events that may or may not be species specific. The study of both the classic and current developmental arrest literature beyond the boundaries of plant biology may be helpful in generating useful ideas and analogies for meaningful experimental progress towards understanding seed dormancy.