In recent years, the analysis of hydrolytic enzyme gene expression in germinating cereals has progressed from a determination of hormone‐responsive promoter elements to the cloning of positive and negative promoter‐binding proteins and the direct in vivo demonstration of their effects on gene expression. Interesting parallels with animal systems have emerged, particularly with regard to the mediation of gibberellin signal transduction through transcriptional regulators encoded by oncogene homologues, calcium signalling pathways, and (possibly) through the phospho‐inositide turnover pathway. New applications of cell microinjection, intracellular fluorescent probes and transient expression with effector/reporter expression plasmids have allowed direct examination of the roles of signal transduction factors and their ultimate targets of their pathways on hormone‐ and sugar‐responsive gene promoter elements. Arabidopsis hormone response mutants have provided cloned candidates for genes encoding trans‐acting regulatory proteins, and these have rapidly led to their counterparts in cereals. The identification of the initial receptor for gibberellin and abscisic acid still proves to be an intractable problem, but candidates have emerged from recent studies. The puzzle of how gibberellin and abscisic acid signal transductions lead to opposing regulatory events at every level proves to be a continuing challenge, but recent studies provide intriguing insights into these complex events. These studies are providing testable models as to how hydrolytic enzyme gene expression in developing and germinating cereal grains is regulated. The following review is constructed to summarize recent physiological, genetic and molecular studies in these areas and, where appropriate, provide correlative information from past studies.