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Plant reproduction is essential not only for producing offspring but also for increasing crop quality and yield. Moreover, plant reproduction entails complex growth and developmental processes, which provide a variety of opportunities for elucidating fundamental principles in biology. The combinational employment of molecular genetic approaches and emerging technologies, such as florescence-based imaging techniques and next generation sequencing, has led to important progresses in plant reproduction using model plants, crops, and trees. This e-book compiles 31 articles, including 1 hypothesis and theory, 4 perspectives, 12 reviews, and 14 original research papers. We hope that this E-book will draw attention of all plant biologists to exciting advances in the field of plant reproduction and help solve remaining challenging questions in the future. We wish to express our appreciation to all the authors, reviewers, and the Frontiers editorial office for their excellent contributions that made the publication of this e-book possible.

Pollen tube growth --- Sexual and asexual reproduction --- flowering time and flower development --- self-incompatibility and pollination --- embryo and fruit development --- Meiosis --- sterility and floral organ degeneration --- gene regulatory networks and live-cell imaging --- sex determination --- epigenetics

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Once per life cycle, mitotic nuclear divisions are replaced by meiosis I and II—reducing chromosome number from the diploid level to a haploid genome and recombining chromosome arms by crossing-over. In animals, all this happens during formation of eggs and sperm—in yeasts before spore formation. The mechanisms of reciprocal exchange at crossover/chiasma sites are central to mainstream meiosis. To initiate the meiotic exchange of DNA, surgical cuts are made as a form of calculated damage that subsequently is repaired by homologous recombination. These key events are accompanied by ancillary provisions at the level of chromatin organization, sister chromatid cohesion and differential centromere connectivity. Great progress has been made in recent years in our understanding of these mechanisms. Questions still open primarily concern the placement of and mutual coordination between neighboring crossover events. Of overlapping significance, this book features two comprehensive treatises of enzymes involved in meiotic recombination, as well as the historical conceptualization of meiotic phenomena from genetical experiments. More specifically, these mechanisms are addressed in yeasts as unicellular model eukaryotes. Furthermore, evolutionary subjects related to meiosis are treated.

Genetic recombination. --- Meiosis. --- Life sciences. --- Human genetics. --- Biochemistry. --- Cell biology. --- Plant genetics. --- Animal genetics. --- Life Sciences. --- Cell Biology. --- Biochemistry, general. --- Animal Genetics and Genomics. --- Human Genetics. --- Plant Genetics & Genomics. --- Genetics --- Plants --- Cell biology --- Cellular biology --- Biology --- Cells --- Cytologists --- Biological chemistry --- Chemical composition of organisms --- Organisms --- Physiological chemistry --- Chemistry --- Medical sciences --- Heredity, Human --- Human biology --- Physical anthropology --- Biosciences --- Sciences, Life --- Science --- Composition --- Reduction division (Genetics) --- Cell division --- Karyokinesis --- Recombination, Genetic --- Chromosomes --- Recombinant DNA --- Cytology. --- Plant Genetics and Genomics.

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Apomixis is the consequence of a concerted mechanism that harnesses the sexual machinery and coordinates developmental steps in the ovule to produce an asexual (clonal) seed. Altered sexual developments involve widely characterized functional and anatomical changes in meiosis, gametogenesis, and embryo and endosperm formation. The ovules of apomictic plants skip meiosis and form unreduced female gametophytes whose egg cells develop into a parthenogenetic embryo, and the central cells may or may not fuse to a sperm to develop the seed endosperm. Thus, functional apomixis involves at least three components, apomeiosis, parthenogenesis, and endosperm development, modified from sexual reproduction that must be coordinated at the molecular level to progress through the developmental steps and form a clonal seed. Despite recent progress uncovering specific genes related to apomixis-like phenotypes and the formation of clonal seeds, the molecular basis and regulatorynetwork of apomixis is still unknown. This is a central problem underlying the current limitations of apomixis breeding. This book collates twelve publications addressing different topics around the molecular basis of apomixis, illustrating recent discoveries and advances toward understanding the genetic regulation of the trait, discussing the possible origins of apomixis and the remaining challenges for its commercial deployment in plants.

apomixis --- evolution --- germline --- gene regulation --- sporogenesis --- plant reproduction --- ribosome --- RNA helicase --- sexual development --- stress response --- apomeiosis --- clonal seeds --- endosperm --- heterosis capture --- molecular breeding --- parthenogenesis --- differentially expressed genes --- hybridization --- microarrays --- polyploidy --- Ranunculus --- sexuality --- character segregation --- crop biotechnology --- heterosis --- meiosis --- recombination --- agamospermy --- basal angiosperms (ANA-grade) --- sporocyteless --- polycomb-group proteins --- reproductive systems --- apomixis evolution --- APOSTART --- Poa pratensis --- diplospory --- autonomous endosperm --- genetics --- Taraxacum --- dandelion --- weeping lovegrass --- drought stress --- RNA-seq --- plant breeding --- plant development --- Hieracium piloselloides --- CRISPR/Cas9 --- PHYTOENE DESATURASE (PDS) --- amplicon sequencing --- genome editing --- tissue culture --- haploid progeny --- dicotyledon --- PsASGR-BBML --- pseudogamy --- 5-azacytidine --- abscisic acid --- apospory --- expression profiling --- fluridone --- metabolic homeostasis --- oxidative stress --- sucrose non-fermenting-related protein kinase --- n/a

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Understanding of the origin of species and their adaptability to new environments is one of the main questions in biology. This is fueled by the ongoing debate on species concepts and facilitated by the availability of an unprecedented large number of genomic resources. Genomes are organized into chromosomes, where significant variations in number and morphology are observed among species due to large-scale structural variants such as inversions, translocations, fusions, and fissions. This genomic reshuffling provides, in the long term, new chromosomal forms on which natural selection can act upon, contributing to the origin of biodiversity. This book contains mainly articles, reviews, and an opinion piece that explore numerous aspects of genome plasticity among taxa that will help in understanding the dynamics of genome composition, the evolutionary relationships between species and, in the long run, speciation.

cytogenetics --- sex chromosomes --- chromosome rearrangements --- genome plasticity --- centromere --- genome biology --- evolution --- BAC-clones --- chromosome painting --- Kirk’s Dikdik --- musk ox --- saola --- nilgai bull --- gaur --- satellite DNA --- genome architecture --- chromosome restructuring --- Robertsonian translocations --- satellite DNA transcription --- comparative genomic hybridization --- karyotype variability --- repetitive DNAs --- Robertsonian translocation --- Crocidura suaveolens --- shrews --- habitat specialist --- chromosomes --- chromosomal evolution --- B-chromosomes --- chromosomal polymorphism --- mtDNA --- Rallidae --- Psophiidae --- cytogenetic --- chromosome evolution --- phylogenetic --- Anopheles --- heterochromatin --- mosquito --- mitotic chromosome --- sex chromosome --- X chromosome --- aberrant sex determination --- comparative cytogenetics --- mandarin vole --- microdissection --- high-throughput sequencing --- rearrangements --- rodents --- Ellobius alaicus --- translocation --- non-homologous chromosome connections --- meiosis --- synaptonemal complex --- sex chromosome evolution --- karyotypic and molecular evolution --- genomic architecture of sexual development --- adaptation and natural selection --- genome organization and function --- nucleolar organizing region --- dosage compensation --- faster-X and faster-Z --- climate change and global warming --- reptilian vertebrates --- comparative fish cytogenetics --- cytotaxonomy --- chromosome banding --- East Asian cypriniform fishes --- FISH --- rDNA --- snDNA --- birds --- doves and pigeons --- genome organization --- macrochromosomes --- microchromosomes --- Robertsonian fusions --- distribution --- clinal analysis --- recombination --- sexual antagonism --- chromatin state --- n/a --- Kirk's Dikdik