Biotechnology and micromanipulation of sexual processes in flowering plants

Sexual reproduction is an essential process in the propagation of flowering plants. The vegetative life cycle of plants starts with the fusion of male and female gametes in the course of double fertilisation. Investigations o n the reproductive processes of agriculturally important crop plants, inclu ding cereals, are of great importance in breeding and seed sciences. For a long time much of our basic knowledge of sexual reproduction of the floweri ng plants has been derived from comprehensive information obtained from mor phological (histological, cytological and ultrastructural) studies. Recent advances in plant cell and molecular biology have brought new, sophisticate d experimental techniques to investigate and to micromanipulate the reprodu ctive cells of plants for various biotechnological purposes (e.g. haploid i nduction, in vitro fertilisation, DNA transformation). The present paper gives a review of the results achieved in our cooperating laboratories within the fields of experimental flowering biology and biote chnology of sexual reproduction in cereals.