Shaping world agriculture to meet increasing food demands is a major challenge for humanity. In that respect, apomixis in flowering plants is an attractive phenomenon, which could improve crop production in farming systems worldwide. Seeds in apomicts contain maternal embryos, a characteristic allowing the immediate fixation of any genotype or complex trait such as heterosis. Apomixis is found sporadically in crops, but it is widespread in wild species, including relatives of maize, wheat, and pearl millet. The recovery of apomictic crops was first attempted through conventional backcrossing, but to date, all efforts have failed. Currently, apomixis technologies are expected to emerge from biotechnology-based approaches. However, despite decades of investigation, both the biology and the genetics of apomixis still puzzle plant biologists. Maternal embryos can form within seeds following numerous developmental processes, all intimately related to sexuality. Inheritance studies show that a limited number of Mendelian genetic factors control the trait or its principal components, but molecular data have suggested complex molecular regulatory mechanisms. Today, functional genomics approaches offer opportunities to elucidate the genetic mechanisms governing developmental processes in any organism. Hopefully, the use of these tools will provide a comprehensive understanding of reproductive mechanisms in plants and allow strategies to engineer apomixis in sexual crops.

Text in English

0404|AL-Economics Program