Androgenesis

Androgenesis is a developmental process in which an embryo or plant arises from paternal genetic material alone, with no contribution from the maternal genome. In animals, true androgenesis is rare in nature and is primarily studied as an experimental phenomenon. It is typically induced by removing or inactivating the maternal genome in the oocyte, or by fertilizing an enucleated or irradiated egg with sperm, so that the resulting embryo contains only the paternal genome. Paternal haploid embryos can sometimes undergo genome duplication to become diploid, producing a paternal-line organism. These embryos are used to study paternal gene expression and imprinting, though viability is often limited.

In plants, androgenesis refers to the production of embryos from the male gametophyte, usually through culture of isolated anthers or microspores. The resulting embryos are typically haploid and can be regenerated as haploid plants; chromosome doubling yields doubled-haploid lines that are valuable for breeding because they are fully homozygous after a single generation.

Applications and limitations: Plant androgenesis is widely used to accelerate the development of inbred or homozygous lines and to study early embryogenesis and genome regulation. In animals, androgenesis remains a specialized research tool with limited practical use due to technical challenges, low survival rates, and reduced fitness of androgenetic individuals. The approach also informs studies of development, genetics, and parental origin effects.

See also: gynogenesis, parthenogenesis, haploidy, doubled haploid.