Haploid induction: an overview of parental factor manipulation during seed formation.

In plants, haploid induction has gained increasing attention for its significant potential applications in crop breeding and genetic research. This strategy reduces the chromosome number in progeny after fertilization, enabling the rapid production of homozygous plants through double haploidization, contrasting with traditional inbreeding over successive generations. Haploidy typically initiates at the onset of seed development, with several key genes identified as paternal or maternal factors that play critical roles during meiosis, fertilization, gamete communication, and chromosome integrity maintenance.

Einkorn genomics sheds light on history of the oldest domesticated wheat.

Einkorn (Triticum monococcum) was the first domesticated wheat species, and was central to the birth of agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 years ago. Here we generate and analyse 5.2-Gb genome assemblies for wild and domesticated einkorn, including completely assembled centromeres.

Physical mapping of the wheat genes in low-recombination regions: radiation hybrid mapping of the C-locus.

This work reports the physical mapping of an important gene affecting spike compactness located in a low-recombination region of hexaploid wheat. This work paves the way for the eventual isolation and characterization of the factor involved but also opens up possibilities to use this approach to precisely map other wheat genes located on proximal parts of wheat chromosomes that show highly reduced recombination. Mapping wheat genes, in the centromeric and pericentromeric regions (~ 2/3rd of a given chromosome), poses a formidable challenge due to highly suppressed recombination.

Spatiotemporal transcriptomics and metabolic profiling provide insights into gene regulatory networks during lentil seed development.

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a nutritious legume with seeds rich in protein, minerals and an array of diverse specialized metabolites. The formation of a seed requires regulation and tight coordination of developmental programs to form the embryo, endosperm and seed coat compartments, which determines the structure and composition of mature seed and thus its end-use quality.

Comprehensive compositional assessment of bioactive compounds in diverse pea accessions.

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important legume crop providing a good source of protein, vitamins, minerals and bioactive compounds with health benefits for humans. In this study, an improved method for simultaneous analysis of multiple phytoestrogens among 100 pea accessions was developed.