A research team led by Prof. Liu Xuncheng from the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently published a study in the journal Plant Communications that sheds new light on the pathways that drive light-induced seed germination in plants. The findings identify a positive regulatory role for the KNOX-type transcription factor BP/KNAT1 in Arabidopsis and delineate its interplay with light-sensing proteins and hormone metabolism.