The invention relates to a method to improve breeding in dioecious plants, preferably Asparagus plants, comprising providing a plant in which the functional expression of the dominant suppressor of gynoecium development is disrupted or reduced and introducing said plant in inbreeding, backcross breeding, recurrent backcross breeding or double haploid breeding techniques. Preferably said dominant suppressor of gynoecium development is a gene comprising a DUF247 domain. Also provided are dioeciuos plants in which the expression of this gene is disrupted or reduced.

Disclosed are rice environmental conditional-lethal mutant gene osesl1, an encoding protein and use thereof The gene osesl1 has a nucleotide sequence shown as SEQ ID NO: 1 in the Sequence Listing. The encoding protein thereof has an amino acid sequence shown as SEQ ID NO: 2. After heading of osesl1 mutant rice, seed embryo lethal phenotype appears at 12 days after pollination, exhibiting darkening at the junction between embryo and endosperm. When an average temperature is below 22° C., a seed embryo is normal; when the average temperature is above 28° C., the seed embryo is lethal; when the temperature is between 22° C. and 28° C., the seed embryo is lethal under long daylight conditions (>13 h) and normal under short daylight conditions (<13 h). Use of the gene osesl1 in controlling seed embryo development of rice is further provided.

The invention provides novel compositions and methods for liquid-mediated delivery of pollen to a female reproductive part of a recipient plant. The pollen suspension solutions provided include a surfactant, an oil, a solute, or an aqueous solution, and about 2% to about 20% pollen by weight. The methods provided include producing a liquid pollen suspension solution comprising pollen from a donor plant and spraying the solution onto at least a first female reproductive part of a recipient plant, thereby pollinating the female reproductive part with the pollen from the donor plant.

The invention relates to a method to improve breeding in dioecious plants, preferably Asparagus plants, comprising providing a plant in which the functional expression of the dominant suppressor of gynoecium development is disrupted or reduced and introducing said plant in inbreeding, backcross breeding, recurrent backcross breeding or double haploid breeding techniques. Preferably said dominant suppressor of gynoecium development is a gene comprising a DUF247 domain. Also provided are dioeciuos plants in which the expression of this gene is disrupted or reduced.

The invention provides novel compositions and methods for liquid-mediated delivery of pollen to a female reproductive part of a recipient plant. The pollen suspension solutions provided include a surfactant, an oil, a solute, or an aqueous solution, and about 2% to about 20% pollen by weight. The methods provided include producing a liquid pollen suspension solution comprising pollen from a donor plant and spraying the solution onto at least a first female reproductive part of a recipient plant, thereby pollinating the female reproductive part with the pollen from the donor plant.

This invention is directed to methods of inducing apomixis in a sexual eukaryote or inducing sexual reproduction in an apomictic eukaryote. More particularly, this invention provides methods of switching from meiosis to apomeiosis and from syngamy to parthenogenesis in a plant. The invention also provides methods of producing an apomictic eukaryote from a sexual eukaryote and a sexual eukaryote from an apomictic eukaryote.

Disclosed are rice environmental conditional-lethal mutant gene osesl1, an encoding protein and use thereof The gene osesl1 has a nucleotide sequence shown as SEQ ID NO: 1 in the Sequence Listing. The encoding protein thereof has an amino acid sequence shown as SEQ ID NO: 2. After heading of osesl1 mutant rice, seed embryo lethal phenotype appears at 12 days after pollination, exhibiting darkening at the junction between embryo and endosperm. When an average temperature is below 22 C., a seed embryo is normal; when the average temperature is above 28 C., the seed embryo is lethal; when the temperature is between 22 C. and 28 C., the seed embryo is lethal under long daylight conditions (>13 h) and normal under short daylight conditions (<13 h). Use of the gene osesl1 in controlling seed embryo development of rice is further provided.

Provided in the present invention is a method for preparing hybrid rice, comprising the reproduction and maintenance of the female sterility line and the use thereof in preparing hybrid rice.

The present invention is directed to a gene which, when mutated, results in presence of many male flowers and absence of female flowers in watermelon. Plants comprising mutant alleles of this gene are useful as pollenizers in the production of triploid, seedless watermelon fruits.