Projects - dr. DG (Dawit) Tekleyohans

Maternal Haploid Induction

A number of mutant genes have been identified that induce haploid embryo development when used as the male plant in a cross, so-called maternal haploid inducers. This knowledge has made it possible to produce DH plants in diverse monocot and dicot crops. Currently only pollination with dmp mutants can be used to induce haploids in dicot crops after pollination. dmp-induced haploid induction rates range from 1 to 4%, which are sufficiently high for crops with long life cycles, but not for crops where homozygous lines can be generated quickly by propagating multiple generations per year. This project aims to address this bottleneck by identifying novel maternal haploid inducer mutants with high haploid induction rates. These mutants can be used on their own or combined with dmp haploid inducer lines to obtain highly efficient haploid induction. New haploid inducer lines will be identified in a number of different mutagenesis screens in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and then transferred to crops as proof-of-concept. The broad applicability of dmp and other haploid inducers in model plants and crops suggests that the new haploid inducers identified in Arabidopsis can be transferred easily to dicot crops.