Haploids are plants (sporophytes) that contain a gametic chromosome number (n). They can originate spontaneously in nature or as a result of various induction techniques. Spontaneous development of haploid plants has been known since 1922, when Blakeslee first described this phenomenon in Datura stramonium (Blakeslee et al., 1922); this was subsequently followed by similar reports in tobacco (N...

The production of maize doubled haploid (DH) lines is a technique commonly used by private companies, but not by Brazilian public institutions. Research on this technique is essential to develop and improve the production of DH lines grown under tropical conditions. We assessed the ability of a gynogenetic haploid inducer system to induce haploids in a tropical environment, assessed the inducti...

Majority of higher plants are outbreeding, highly heterozygous and undergo a long developmental period before reaching their reproductive stage. Traditional breeding and crosspollinating procedures are both unpredictable and time-consuming. Haploids are plants with a gametophytic chromosome number and doubled haploids are haploids that have undergone chromosome duplication, represent a particul...

True-breeding lines are required for the development and production of crop varieties. In a classical breeding approach these lines are obtained through inbreeding, and often 7-9 generations of inbreeding is performed to achieve the desired level of homozygosity, over a period of several years. In contrast, the chromosomes of haploids can be doubled to produce true-breeding lines in a single ge...