The technology provides a cost-effective method to help small-scale farmers increase yield
By JOANNA ABRAHAM— science@theaggie.org
In January 2026, UC Davis researchers at the Sundaresan Lab received a $4.9 million Gates Foundation Grant to further develop a novel technique, synthetic apomixis, that produces clonal hybrid seeds. Their research also received the $500,000 VinFuture Prize in December 2025.
Intraspecific hybridization is a process where two “genetically distinct” plants of the same species are crossbred to produce a set of desirable traits in the next generation, such as drought resistance or higher yield, according to the University of Arkansas.
However, when hybrids mate with each other or self-fertilize, these beneficial traits (hybrid vigor) can be lost in subsequent generations. During meiosis, parental DNA is reshuffled before it is packaged into reproductive cells (gametes), each of which are genetically distinct. Then, in a process called fertilization, the maternal and paternal gametes fuse, forming a fertilized egg that develops into an embryo. The embryo later develops into a seed. Therefore, the same set of alleles (versions of a gene) will not be present in every individual of the next generation.
Thus, with traditional methods, farmers must purchase a new set of hybrid seeds each year. For farmers in developing countries, however, this may not always be financially feasible, according to the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI).
In a study published in Nature in 2018, researchers in Sundaresan’s lab group proposed a novel solution for hybrid rice plants to generate clonal offspring asexually: synthetic apomixis.
First, researchers knocked out three genes using Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-associated protein 9 (CRISPR-Cas9): REC8, PAIR1 and OSD. Doing so inhibited meiosis, resulting in “unrecombined” and “diploid” male and female gametes, according to the study.
Next, researchers expressed the Baby Boom 1 gene (BBM1) in the diploid egg cell, triggering the unfertilized egg to develop into an embryo without the need for fertilization (parthenogenesis), according to IGI. BBM1 is a gene that was discovered by Imtiyaz Khanday, an assistant professor of plant sciences at UC Davis and a researcher in Sundaresan’s lab.
Since 2018, researchers have expanded the use of synthetic apomixis to monocot crops other than rice, such as maize, according to a UC Davis press release. The terms monocot and dicot refer to the number of leaf-like structures (cotyledons) that emerge from the embryo after germination. A monocot has one cotyledon, while a dicot has two.
With the grant funds, the Sundaresan group hopes to apply synthetic apomixis to dicots, such as Indian mustard.
“It may be more complicated to move [synthetic apomixis] into dicots, because the embryo initiation process is a little different — but I’m hoping that in five years, we’ll have the technology working,” Sundaresan said in a UC Davis press release.
Sundaresan further commented on the long-term implications of this technology in a Dec. 8, 2025 UC Davis press release.
“Our invention, [synthetic apomixis], means that the benefits of hybrid crops will become available, equitable and accessible to farmers all over the world,” Sundaresan said.
Written by: Joanna Abraham — science@theaggie.org
