A simplified MiMe for producing clonal gametes to enable synthetic apomixis in allotetraploid Brassica napus

Abstract

Synthetic apomixis has been established in Arabidopsis and rice by combining MiMe that produces clonal unreduced gametes with the factors inducing parthenogenesis or haploids. The MiMe requires the simultaneous inactivation of three genes, which imposes challenges for its application in polyploids harbouring multiple copies for each gene. Here, we demonstrate that mutating two genes in the allotetraploid oil crop Brassica napus effectively converts meiosis into mitosis-like division, producing over 95% viable clonal gametes and thus establishing a simplified MiMe system in polyploids.