Floral Developmental Stages and Stress-Induced Reversions from Asexual to Sexual Seed Formation in Boechera (Brassiccaceae)

In the apomictic process, plants produce a genetic copy of themselves by forming genetically-unreduced eggs (2n instead of 1n) that produce embryos parthenogenically, i.e., without fusion of egg and sperm nuclei. • In some plants such as the Boechera species studies have shown that stressing the apomictic plants caused a reversion from apomeiosis to meiosis1. • The object of my study is to more fully understand the stage of floral development at which an apomictic plant must be exposed to a stress signal in order to revert from apomictic to sexual reproduction or vice versa. • Apomixis could be used to cheaply produce commercial quantities of crop seed of heterozygous genotypes, such as superior yielding hybrids. Such plants would remain hybrid from one seed generation to the next