Figure 3.

Schematic representation of sexual reproduction and synthetic apomixis regulated by MiMe and BBMs in rice. The genes in this figure are described in Section 3.4. Left is the sexual reproduction process in which the germ cells form haploid gametes through processes such as meiosis and double fertilization that produce a diploid (2n) embryo and a triploid (3n) endosperm. Apomixis on the right consists of two main modifications: one is the knockdown of OSD1, REC8 and PAIR1, which converts meiosis into mitosis (a technique called MiMe), resulting in 2n egg, sperm cells and central cells. The second is parthenogenesis induced by BBMs (AP2/ERF transcription factors), which converts (2n) egg cells into embryos and produces (6n) endosperm.