FROM IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION TO EARLY EMBRYOGENESIS IN MAIZE

The development of in vitro fertilization methods in plants, the characterization of developmental mutants, and the adaptation of molecular biology techniques to construct cDNA libraries from minute samples, all represent important recent technical breakthroughs. They allow the study of fertilization and early embryogenesis at a molecular level and considerable improvement in the understanding of higher plant reproduction can be predicted over the next few years. Important biological questions, such as polyspermy, gamete fusion physiology, asymmetrical cell division, embryo axis formation, can now be addressed experimentally in maize, which appears as a major study model in this area.