Martin Mau

University of Saskatchewan | U of S · Western College of Veterinary Medicine

The mechanisms of initiation and transmission of apomixis (asexual reproduction through seeds) in natural plant populations are important for understanding the evolution of reproductive variation. Here, we used the phylogenetic diversity of the genus Boechera (Brassicaceae), together with natural diversity in pollen types produced by apomictic line...

Asexual reproduction through seeds in plants (i.e., apomixis) is a heritable trait, and apomixis- linked loci have been identified in multiple species. However, direct identification of genomic elements is typically hindered as apomixis-linked loci and are commonly found in recombination-suppressed and repetitive regions. Heterochromatinized elemen...

Supporting Information for "The spread of infectious asexuality through haploid pollen" ( https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17174)

Cannabis sativa L. is an important yet controversial plant with a long history of recreational, medicinal, industrial, and agricultural use, and together with its sister genus Humulus, it represents a group of plants with a myriad of academic, agricultural, pharmaceutical, industrial, and social interests. We have performed a meta-analysis of poole...

Cannabis sativa L. is an important yet controversial plant with a long history of recreational, medicinal, industrial, and agricultural use, and together with its sister genus Humulus, it represents a group of plants with a myr-iad of academic, agricultural, pharmaceutical, industrial, and social interests. We have performed a meta-analysis of pool...

Global food security is increasingly challenging in light of population increase, the impact of climate change on crop production, and limited land available for agricultural expansion. Here we outline how genome editing provides excellent and timely methods to optimize crop plants, and argue the urgency for societal acceptance and support.

Significance Ecological-niche differentiation in diploid sexual–polyploid asexual complexes has been observed within and among many taxa, yet the relative contributions of reproductive system and ploidy are not fully understood. Here, we assess niche characteristics of sexual diploid, apomictic (asexual) diploid, and triploid Boechera (Brassicaceae...

Ecological-niche differentiation in diploid sexual–polyploid asexual complexes has been observed within and among many taxa, yet the relative contributions of reproductive system and ploidy are not fully understood. Here, we assess niche charac- teristics of sexual diploid, apomictic (asexual) diploid, and triploid Boechera (Brassicaceae) lineages....

In sexual plants meiosis gives rise to recombined and reduced gametes. In diplosporous accessions of the North American genus Boechera meiotic processes are circumvented (i.e. apomeiosis) which lead to a supressed recombination and to production of clonal unreduced male and female gametes. Unreduced male gametes in diplosporous Boechera are require...

In apomictic Boechera meiotic diplospory leads to the circumvention of meiosis and suppression of recombination to produce unreduced male and female gametes (i.e. apomeiosis). Here we have established an early flower developmental staging system and have performed microarray-based comparative gene expression analyses of the pollen mother cell (PMC)...

The genetic mechanisms causing seed development by gametophytic apomixis in plants are predominantly unknown. As apomixis is consistently associated with hybridity and polyploidy, these confounding factors may either (a) be the underlying mechanism for the expression of apomixis, or (b) obscure the genetic factors which cause apomixis. To distingui...

Pollen size is often used as a biological parameter to estimate the ploidy and viability of mature pollen grains. In general, pollen size quantification is performed one- or two-dimensionally using image-based diameter measurements. As these approaches are elaborate and time consuming, alternative approaches that enable a quick, reliable analysis o...

SuperSAGE tags validation. Validation of 4 specifically-expressed SuperSAGE tags from apomictic ovules.

Dissociation curves. Dissociation curves of the 9 amplicons after the qRT-PCR reactions, all showing one peak.

Apomixis, a natural form of asexual seed production in plants, is considered to have great biotechnological potential for agriculture. It has been hypothesised that de-regulation of the sexual developmental pathway could trigger apomictic reproduction. The genus Boechera represents an interesting model system for understanding apomixis, having both...