diff -Nru germinate-2.25/debian/changelog germinate-2.26/debian/changelog
--- germinate-2.25/debian/changelog	2016-04-19 09:14:17.000000000 +0000
+++ germinate-2.26/debian/changelog	2017-01-26 21:36:20.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+germinate (2.26) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * Add an --always-follow-build-depends option to force germinate to follow
+    Build-Depends regardless of seed feature flags.
+  * Change default distribution to zesty.
+
+ -- Colin Watson <cjwatson@ubuntu.com>  Thu, 26 Jan 2017 21:36:20 +0000
+
 germinate (2.25) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * Cope with malformed Built-Using fields, since we only started checking
diff -Nru germinate-2.25/germinate/defaults.py germinate-2.26/germinate/defaults.py
--- germinate-2.25/germinate/defaults.py	2016-04-07 13:33:42.000000000 +0000
+++ germinate-2.26/germinate/defaults.py	2017-01-26 21:34:33.000000000 +0000
@@ -22,10 +22,10 @@
 seeds = 'http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/seeds/'
 seeds_bzr = 'http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/'
 seeds_git = 'git://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/+git/'
-release = 'ubuntu.xenial'
+release = 'ubuntu.zesty'
 
 # If we need to download Packages.gz and/or Sources.gz, where do we get
 # them from?
 mirror = 'http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/'
-dist = 'xenial'
+dist = 'zesty'
 arch = 'i386'
diff -Nru germinate-2.25/germinate/germinator.py germinate-2.26/germinate/germinator.py
--- germinate-2.25/germinate/germinator.py	2016-04-19 09:01:43.000000000 +0000
+++ germinate-2.26/germinate/germinator.py	2017-01-26 21:35:08.000000000 +0000
@@ -399,6 +399,8 @@
         # Results of germination for each seed structure.
         self._output = GerminatorOutput()
 
+        self._always_follow_build_depends = False
+
     # Parsing.
     # --------
 
@@ -1182,8 +1184,10 @@
     def _follow_build_depends(self, structure, seed=None):
         """
         Test whether we should follow Build-Depends for this seed.
-        Defaults to True, if not explicitly specified.
+        Defaults to True if not explicitly specified.
         """
+        if self._always_follow_build_depends:
+            return True
         if seed is not None:
             if "follow-build-depends" in seed._features:
                 return True
diff -Nru germinate-2.25/germinate/scripts/germinate_main.py germinate-2.26/germinate/scripts/germinate_main.py
--- germinate-2.25/germinate/scripts/germinate_main.py	2016-04-07 13:28:52.000000000 +0000
+++ germinate-2.26/germinate/scripts/germinate_main.py	2016-04-20 21:35:19.000000000 +0000
@@ -108,6 +108,11 @@
                       metavar='PARENT/PKG,PARENT/PKG,...',
                       help='treat each PKG as a seed by itself, inheriting '
                            'from PARENT')
+    parser.add_option('--always-follow-build-depends',
+                      dest='always_follow_build_depends', action='store_true',
+                      default=False,
+                      help='always follow Build-Depends, regardless of seed '
+                           'feature flags')
     options, _ = parser.parse_args(argv[1:])
 
     if options.seeds is None:
@@ -141,6 +146,7 @@
         germinate_logging(logging.INFO)
 
     g = Germinator(options.arch)
+    g._always_follow_build_depends = options.always_follow_build_depends
 
     archive = germinate.archive.TagFile(
         options.dist, options.components, options.arch,
diff -Nru germinate-2.25/man/germinate.1 germinate-2.26/man/germinate.1
--- germinate-2.25/man/germinate.1	2016-04-07 13:33:55.000000000 +0000
+++ germinate-2.26/man/germinate.1	2017-01-26 21:34:43.000000000 +0000
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@
 Fetch seeds for distribution
 .Ar dist .
 The default is
-.Li ubuntu.xenial .
+.Li ubuntu.zesty .
 .Pp
 When fetching seeds from git, the part after the rightmost
 .Sq \&.
@@ -245,7 +245,7 @@
 .Xc
 Operate on the specified distributions.
 The default is
-.Li xenial .
+.Li zesty .
 Listing multiple distributions may be useful, for example, when examining
 both a released distribution and its security updates.
 .It Xo Fl a ,
@@ -328,6 +328,8 @@
 .Ar desktop
 seed in order to install
 .Ar epiphany\-browser .
+.It Fl Fl always\-follow\-build\-depends
+Always follow Build-Depends in all seeds, regardless of seed feature flags.
 .El
 .Sh BUGS
 The wiki-style markup in seeds was inherited from an early implementation,
diff -Nru germinate-2.25/man/germinate-pkg-diff.1 germinate-2.26/man/germinate-pkg-diff.1
--- germinate-2.25/man/germinate-pkg-diff.1	2016-04-07 13:33:44.000000000 +0000
+++ germinate-2.26/man/germinate-pkg-diff.1	2017-01-26 21:34:36.000000000 +0000
@@ -70,13 +70,13 @@
 Fetch seeds for distribution
 .Ar dist .
 The default is
-.Li ubuntu.xenial .
+.Li ubuntu.zesty .
 .It Xo Fl d ,
 .Fl Fl dist Ar dist Ns \&,...
 .Xc
 Operate on the specified distributions.
 The default is
-.Li xenial .
+.Li zesty .
 Listing multiple distributions may be useful, for example, when examining
 both a released distribution and its security updates.
 .It Xo Fl a ,
diff -Nru germinate-2.25/man/germinate-update-metapackage.1 germinate-2.26/man/germinate-update-metapackage.1
--- germinate-2.25/man/germinate-update-metapackage.1	2016-04-07 13:33:53.000000000 +0000
+++ germinate-2.26/man/germinate-update-metapackage.1	2017-01-26 21:34:40.000000000 +0000
@@ -198,9 +198,9 @@
 source package in the Ubuntu archive:
 .Bd -literal -offset indent
 [DEFAULT]
-dist: xenial
+dist: zesty
 
-[xenial]
+[zesty]
 seeds: desktop full active
 architectures: i386 amd64 powerpc armhf arm64 ppc64el
 seed_base: http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/seeds/
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@
 archive_base/ppc64el: %(archive_base/ports)s
 components: main restricted universe
 
-[xenial/bzr]
+[zesty/bzr]
 seed_base: bzr+ssh://bazaar.launchpad.net/~kubuntu-dev/ubuntu-seeds/ bzr+ssh://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu-seeds/
 seed_dist: kubuntu.%(dist)s
 .Ed