To take advantage of hybrid vigor, most crop plants are grown with hybrid seeds, which are produced afresh by crossing elite inbred lines. Here, Erik Wijnker and colleagues demonstrate the feasibility of reverse breeding, a method that enables the generation of homozygous parental lines from a hybrid individual in the plant model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Homozygous parents can be maintained indefinitely, better facilitating future improvements.
- Erik Wijnker
- Kees van Dun
- Rob Dirks
