Polyploidy, the possession of multiple sets of chromosomes, has been a predominant factor in the evolution and success of the angiosperms. Although artificially formed allopolyploids show a high rate of genome rearrangement, the genomes of cultivars and germplasm used for crop breeding were assumed stable and genome structural variation under the artificial selection process of commercial breed...

One of the modern crop breeding techniques uses doubled haploid plants that contain an identical pair of chromosomes in order to accelerate the breeding process. Rapid haploid identification method is critical for large-scale selections of double haploids. The conventional methods based on the color of the endosperm and embryo seeds are slow, manual and prone to error. On the other hand, there ...

Somaclonal variation, aneuploidy, and genotypic specificity are major limitations of anther culture and bread wheat x Hordeum bulbosum crosses for producing haploids (n=3x=21, ABD). Sexual combinations of wheat x Zea mays have since emerged as an alternate and significant procedure as wheat genotypic specificity does not exist. This procedure has been refined and simplified over the last decade...

Although the genetic regulation of recombination in allopolyploid species plays a pivotal role in evolution and plant breeding, it has received little recent attention, except in wheat (Triticum aestivum). PrBn is the main locus that determines the number of nonhomologous associations during meiosis of microspore cultured Brassica napus haploids (AC; 19 chromosomes). In this study, we examined ...

In allopolyploid species, fair meiosis could be challenged by homeologous chromosome pairing and is usually achieved by the action of homeologous pairing suppressor genes. Oilseed rape (Brassica napus) haploids (AC, n=19) represent an attractive model for studying the mechanisms used by allopolyploids to ensure the diploid-like meiotic pairing pattern. In oilseed rape haploids, homeologous chro...

Microspore embryogenesis is a process of cell reprogramming, totipotency acquisition and embryogenesis initiation, induced in vitro by stress treatments and widely used in plant breeding for rapid production of doubled-haploids, but its regulating mechanisms are still largely unknown. Increasing evidence has revealed epigenetic reprogramming during microspore embryogenesis, through DNA methylat...

Haploid plants are very important in various realms of research disciplines such as plant biotechnology, molecular genetics and traditional plant breeding. They provide useful information regarding recombination and genetic control of chromosomal pairing. Haploidy expedites the breeding process thereby increasing the crop yield. Researchers have been working on the haploidy approach for more th...

The problem of the factors involved in the development of the haploid syndrome in anuran embryos is as yet unsolved. It is known that about 90 % of all haploid frog embryos develop the haploid syndrome, which is characterized by the presence of oedema and sluggishness, by reduction in pigmentation and in the efficiency of the heart and circulation, and by a partial failure of the gut to coil an...

Resynthesized (RS) oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is potentially of great interest for hybrid breeding. However, a major problem with the direct use of RS B. napus is the quality of seed oil (high level of erucic acid) and seed meal (high glucosinolate content), which does not comply with double-low quality oilseed rape. Thus, additional developments are needed before RS B. napus can be intro...

To date, all linkage maps of hexaploid oat (Avena sativa L.) have been constructed using recombinant inbred lines (RILs). Doubled haploids (DHs), however, have the advantage over RILs of their comprehensive homozygosity. DHs have been used for mapping in several cereal species, but in oats the production of large DH populations has only recently become an option. A linkage map of hexaploid oat ...