30 pages, 5 figures, 26 references.We report the cloning and functional characterization of the first heat-shock transcription factor that is specifically expressed during embryogenesis in the absence of environmental stress. In sunflower embryos this factor, HaHSFA9, trans-activated promoters with poor consensus heat-shock cis-elements, including that of the seed-specific Hahsp17.6G1 gene. Mutations that improved the heat-shock cis-element consensus at the Hahsp17.7G4 promoter impaired transient activation by HaHSFA9 in sunflower embryos. The same mutations did not affect heat-shock-induced gene expression of this promoter in transgenic tobacco plants but reduced the developmental activation by endogenous heat-shock transcription factors (HSFs) in seeds. Sunflower, and perhaps other plants such as tobacco, differs from the vertebrate animal systems in having at least one specialized HSF with expression and (or) activation patterns strictly restricted to embryos. Our results strongly indicate that HaHSFA9 is a transcription factor critically involved in the developmental activation of Hahsp17.6G1 and in that of similar target genes as Hahsp17.7G4.This work was supported in part by Grant BIO99-794 (to J. J.) from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Plan Nacional de I+D+I.We thank support from Ph. D. fellowships from the Spanish “Ministerio de Educación y Cultura” (to A. R. and J. D. M.). We also thank Pilar Bazaga for excellent technical work.Peer reviewed