The avenues opened up during this work, summarized in a review article, were pursued after Pierre Benveniste's retirement in 2005 by researchers at the CNRS Plant Molecular Biology Institute (and other teams abroad) and now provide a better understanding of the role of sterols and their derivatives in various vital plant processes such as embryonic development, cell division, auxin transport, membrane flux and reflux, secretion of suberin, a major constituent of epidermis, and leaf senescence.