Question

What is apomixis? Mention its significance.

Answer 1

Apomixis is the mechanism of seed production without fertilization. It is a kind of asexual reproduction which mimics sexual reproduction, where the female gametophyte or the ovule in the flower directly develops into an embryo skipping meiosis and syngamy. Thus apomixis produces a clonal progeny with a maternal genotype.

Apomixis is of high importance as;

• It produces seed progeny which are exactly the same as the mother plant. Thus apomixis helps in the preservation of good characters over generations for crop plants.
• It helps in the production of hybrid seeds with a combination of desirable characters. It also prevents the loss of specific characters from a hybrid.
  
• It helps in the cost-effective and time-efficient production of seeds.