Production of haploid plants that inherit chromosomes from only one parent can greatly
accelerate plant breeding 1 , 2 , 3 . Haploids generated from a heterozygous individual and …

Apomixis, the formation of asexual seeds in plants, leads to populations that are genetically
uniform maternal clones. The transfer of apomixis to crop plants holds great promise in plant …

Cloning through seeds has potential revolutionary applications in agriculture, because it would
allow vigorous hybrids to be propagated indefinitely. However, asexual seed formation or …

Wide crosses result in postzygotic elimination of one parental chromosome set, but the
mechanisms that result in such differential fate are poorly understood. Here, we show that …

Centromere behavior is specialized in meiosis I, so that sister chromatids of homologous
chromosomes are pulled toward the same side of the spindle (through kinetochore mono-…

Traditionally, hybrid seeds are produced by crossing selected inbred lines. Here we provide
a proof of concept for reverse breeding, a new approach that simplifies meiosis such that …

10.7554/eLife.06516.001 Genome instability is associated with mitotic errors and cancer. This
phenomenon can lead to deleterious rearrangements, but also genetic novelty, and many …

Centromeres control chromosome inheritance in eukaryotes, yet their DNA structure and
primary sequence are hypervariable. Most animals and plants have megabases of tandem …

Genetic analysis in haploids provides unconventional yet powerful advantages not available
in diploid organisms. In Arabidopsis thaliana, haploids can be generated through seeds by …

Quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping is a powerful tool for investigating the genetic basis of
natural variation. QTL can be mapped using a number of different population designs, but …