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Can We Use Gene-Editing to Induce Apomixis in Sexual Plants?
Review

A Reappraisal of the Evolutionary and Developmental Pathway of Apomixis and Its Genetic Control in Angiosperms

1
Department of Agronomy Food Natural Resources Animals Environment, University of Padova, Campus of Agripolis, Viale dell’Università 16, Legnaro, 35020 Padova, Italy
2
Department of Environmental and Territory Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy
3
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, 06121 Perugia, Italy
4
Research Division of Perugia, Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, National Research Council (CNR), Via Madonna Alta 130, 06128 Perugia, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Genes 2020, 11(8), 859; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11080859
Received: 3 July 2020 / Revised: 24 July 2020 / Accepted: 27 July 2020 / Published: 28 July 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Basis of Apomixis in Plants)
Apomixis sensu stricto (agamospermy) is asexual reproduction by seed. In angiosperms it represents an easy byway of life cycle renewal through gamete-like cells that give rise to maternal embryos without ploidy reduction (meiosis) and ploidy restitution (syngamy). The origin of apomixis still represents an unsolved problem, as it may be either evolved from sex or the other way around. This review deals with a reappraisal of the origin of apomixis in order to deepen knowledge on such asexual mode of reproduction which seems mainly lacking in the most basal angiosperm orders (i.e., Amborellales, Nymphaeales and Austrobaileyales, also known as ANA-grade), while it clearly occurs in different forms and variants in many unrelated families of monocots and eudicots. Overall findings strengthen the hypothesis that apomixis as a whole may have evolved multiple times in angiosperm evolution following different developmental pathways deviating to different extents from sexuality. Recent developments on the genetic control of apomixis in model species are also presented and adequately discussed in order to shed additional light on the antagonist theories of gain- and loss-of-function over sexuality. View Full-Text
Keywords: agamospermy; basal angiosperms (ANA-grade); sporocyteless; polycomb-group proteins; reproductive systems; apomixis evolution agamospermy; basal angiosperms (ANA-grade); sporocyteless; polycomb-group proteins; reproductive systems; apomixis evolution
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MDPI and ACS Style

Barcaccia, G.; Palumbo, F.; Sgorbati, S.; Albertini, E.; Pupilli, F. A Reappraisal of the Evolutionary and Developmental Pathway of Apomixis and Its Genetic Control in Angiosperms. Genes 2020, 11, 859. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11080859

AMA Style

Barcaccia G, Palumbo F, Sgorbati S, Albertini E, Pupilli F. A Reappraisal of the Evolutionary and Developmental Pathway of Apomixis and Its Genetic Control in Angiosperms. Genes. 2020; 11(8):859. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11080859

Chicago/Turabian Style

Barcaccia, Gianni, Fabio Palumbo, Sergio Sgorbati, Emidio Albertini, and Fulvio Pupilli. 2020. "A Reappraisal of the Evolutionary and Developmental Pathway of Apomixis and Its Genetic Control in Angiosperms" Genes 11, no. 8: 859. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11080859

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