Breeding based on doubled-haploid approaches has recently become a common tool for accelerating crop improvement in many plant species. However, many plant species do not have a reliable method for haploid induction. A promising new approach involving centromere engineering has recently been proposed to overcome this limitation. | Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Turk J Agric For (2015) 39: 557-562 © TÜBİTAK doi: Review Article Modification of centromere structure: a promising approach for haploid line production in plant breeding 1, 2 3 Ahmet L. TEK *, Robert M. STUPAR , Kiyotaka NAGAKI Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey 2 Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA 3 Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, Kurashiki, Japan 1 Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: Breeding based on doubled-haploid approaches has recently become a common tool for accelerating crop improvement in many plant species. However, many plant species do not have a reliable method for haploid induction. A promising new approach involving centromere engineering has recently been proposed to overcome this limitation. Here we provide a perspective of this novel method for the production of haploid plants, which was originally described in the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana. Centromeres, known to be critical for the accurate distribution of chromosomes in every cell division, have now become a novel target for crop improvement by enabling doubled-haploid technologies. Key words: CENP-A, CenH3, histone, GFP, kinetochore, agronomy 1. Introduction The breeding of many plant species requires the development of fully homozygous (. inbred) lines. The classical approach starts with several generations of selfpollination until an acceptable level of homozygosity has been reached, depending on the plant species under investigation. This is a slow process due to the many (usually 8 to 10) generations required to reach nearly complete homozygosity. In some species, it is possible to induce haploid (1n) sporophyte individuals from a highly heterozygous parent .
