The invention provides novel methods for liquid-mediated delivery of pollen grains to enclosed stigmas in recipient female flowers. For example, methods for liquid-mediated pollination are provided. The methods provided include collecting pollen from a donor plant, suspending the collected pollen in a liquid solution, and introducing said solution to an enclosed stigma of a recipient flower bud on a recipient plant, thereby pollinating the flower with the pollen from the donor plant.

The present invention provides methods of preparing plants, with specific predetermined mutation(s) in one or more NOI(s). The specific predetermined mutation(s) preferably may result in the identification of plants having desired traits.

Plant cell fate and development is altered by treating cells with cellular reprogramming factors. Embryogenesis inducing embryogenesis factor genes and/or morphogenic developmental genes are used as cellular reprogramming factors, specifically comprising polypeptides or polynucleotides encoding gene products for generating doubled haploids or haploid plants from gametes. Maize microspores treated by contacting the isolated cells with an exogenous purified, recombinant embryogenesis inducing embryogenesis factor gene products and/or morphogenic developmental gene polypeptide results in embryogenesis. The gametes of a maize plant develop into embryoids when transformed with a genetic construct including regulatory elements and structural genes capable of acting in a cascading fashion to alter cellular fate of plant cells. Embryogenesis factor proteins and/or developmental morphogenic proteins expressed from a genetic construct are used for ex situ treatment methods and for in planta cellular reprogramming.

The present invention provides a Stevia plant comprising useful steviol glycoside such as rebaudioside D at higher content as compared with known Stevia species. The present invention also provides a method of producing such a Stevia plant, and a dried leaf and an extract obtainable from such a plant.

A method of screening for a stevia plant with high steviol glycoside content, that includes detecting from the genome of a test stevia plant the presence and/or the absence of the following genetic feature: (1) homozygous for the allele wherein the base at the position corresponding to position 290 of SEQ ID NO: 1 is T, and the presence and/or the absence of the following genetic feature: (2) homozygous or heterozygous for the allele wherein the base at the position corresponding to position 40 of SEQ ID NO: 2 is A.

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.

Genes found in wild species can provide beneficial traits to domestic crops. For example, wild Glycine species can provide resistance to a broad spectrum of soy rust populations if introgressed into soybean. Previously, successful introgression required wide cross pollinations, embryo rescue, and regeneration of F1 shoots. Furthermore, chromosome doubling, which can be achieved by chemical treatment of embryos, was required in order to obtain fertile amphidiploids (F1Ds). A backcross to soybean was then required in order to obtain BC1F1 genetics. Here we describe improved procedures for interspecific crosses between soybean and Glycine tomentella. These procedures offer a more efficient route to BC1F1 genetics by bypassing the amphidiploid generation. These principles can be applied to additional domestic species and their wild relatives such as Brassica.

The invention provides novel methods for liquid-mediated delivery of pollen grains to enclosed stigmas in recipient female flowers. For example, methods for liquid-mediated pollination are provided. The methods provided include collecting pollen from a donor plant, suspending the collected pollen in a liquid solution, and introducing said solution to an enclosed stigma of a recipient flower bud on a recipient plant, thereby pollinating the flower with the pollen from the donor plant.

Plant cell fate and development is altered by treating cells with cellular reprogramming factors. Embryogenesis inducing embryogenesis factor genes and/or morphogenic developmental genes are used as cellular reprogramming factors, specifically comprising polypeptides or polynucleotides encoding gene products for generating doubled haploids or haploid plants from gametes. Maize microspores treated by contacting the isolated cells with an exogenous purified, recombinant embryogenesis inducing embryogenesis factor gene products and/or morphogenic developmental gene polypeptide results in embryogenesis. The gametes of a maize plant develop into embryoids when transformed with a genetic construct including regulatory elements and structural genes capable of acting in a cascading fashion to alter cellular fate of plant cells. Embryogenesis factor proteins and/or developmental morphogenic proteins expressed from a genetic construct are used for ex situ treatment methods and for in planta cellular reprogramming.

The present invention provides pollen compositions, methods and kits for making said compositions, and methods of using said compositions to fertilize a plant. The pollen within these compositions has increased longevity and can be used to fertilize plants for an extended period of time as compared to pollen prepared using conventional methods. Also provided are methods of collecting pollen from a maize plant by maturing individual tassel branches off of the plant and vessels for collecting the pollen from these individual branches.