Meiosis is a process that leads to the creation of haploid gametes in eukaryotes from diploid parent cells and generates genetic variation in species by recombination. In plants, this process is critically important for generating newer traits that can be selected for agriculture and increasing food production. It has been shown that plants can increase their ploidy from diploid to tetraploid and can stably maintain a tetraploid genome. Also, plants can be chemically induced to be polyploids and in fact, at times (upon stabilization) this leads to better traits such as bigger fruits, larger leaves, larger seeds, and bigger flowers, sometimes referred to as polyploidy related hybrid vigor.

In recent years, the field of plant meiosis has witnessed a revolution in understanding the inner working of this process at a molecular level. These advances have been fueled predominantly by cytogenetics, immunohistology, and chromosome analysis. More recently, biochemistry and structural biology-oriented methods are helping to further unravel the mysteries of how certain complex functions are achieved during the process of meiosis. 

This methods collection is aimed to serve as a repository to visualize some of these methods that can be applied to study meiosis in newer crop plants. We will accept methods pertaining to:

1. Novel methods to study meiosis led to recombination in plants.
2. Immunocytology to visualize meiosis and recombination in crop plants.
3. Generation of polyploidy in novel crops and visualization of meiosis in polyploid plants.
4. Purification and characterization of meiosis-related proteins in plants/crops.