State what is apomixis. Comment on its significance. How can it be commercially used?
Apomixis is a type of asexual reproduction that mimics sexual reproduction, i.e. in which seeds are produced without fertilisation. Here, the embryos can develop directly from the nucellus, int“guments, synergid or egg of a diploid embryo sac. The plants produced by apomixis are genetically similar to the parent plant. They maintain and exhibit all me good cnaracteristics of the parent plant without any risk of segregation of hybrid characters as in case of sexually reproducing plants. The information gained from genetics of apomixis can be commercially used in transfer of apomictic genes into hybrid varieties. The production of hybrid seeds by ’ sexual reproduction every year, is too expensive for farmers.