Preferential growth of haploid plant cells in vitro

HAPLOIDS from higher eukaryotes are of great importance for genetic analysis1. The observation of Morpurgo2 that haploid segregants can be obtained from diploid lines of Aspergillus nidulans by parafluorophenylalanine (PFP) treatment suggests that defined chemical manipulations may be useful in generating and maintaining haploid cells in cultures of higher plants. Parafluorophenylalanine has been found to induce haploidization not only in some species of Aspergillus, but also in some other genera of fungi such as Ustilago3.