Developmental Pathway and Factors Affecting Androgenesis in vitro in Higher Plants

In higher plants, the process that young pollen grains or isolated microspores switched their normal pollen development towards an embryogenic pathway under artificial induction condition has been referred as androgenesis in vitro. To obtain homozygous diploid via androgenesis and then by chromosome doubling from regenerated haploid is an important tool for researches in plant development, genetics and breeding. In this paper, the cytological events and the influencing factors of in vitro androgenesis in higher plants has been reviewed: 1) the initiation of cell divisions, pattern formation and development pathways of androgenetic microspore, 2) the factors that influence efficiency of androgenesis include genotypes and physiological state of donor plants, developmental stage of microspores, stress treatment and culture conditions, and the applications of in vitro androgenesis in haploid and double haploid production and its limiting factors are further discussed, in order to offer theoretical basis to accelerate the process of plant breeding program.