Seed development and inheritance studies in apomictic maize-Tripsacum hybrids reveal barriers for the transfer of apomixis into sexual crops.

Apomixis in plants covers a variety of cloning systems through seeds of great potential for plant breeding. Among long-standing approaches for crop improvement is the attempt to exploit wild relatives as natural, vast reservoirs for novel genetic variation. With regard to apomixis, maize possesses an apomictic wild relative, Tripsacum, which we used to produce advanced maize-Tripsacum hybrid generations.