How to Become an Apomixis Model: The Multifaceted Case of Paspalum

In the past decades, the grasses of the Paspalum genus have emerged as a versatile model allowing evolutionary, genetic, molecular, and developmental studies on apomixis as well as successful breeding applications. The rise of such an archetypal system progressed through integrative phases, which were essential to draw conclusions based on solid standards. Here, we review the steps adopted in Paspalum to establish the current body of knowledge on apomixis and provide model breeding programs for other agronomically important apomictic crops. In particular, we discuss the need for previous detailed cytoembryological and cytogenetic germplasm characterization; the establishment of sexual and apomictic materials of identical ploidy level; the development of segregating populations useful for inheritance analysis, positional mapping, and epigenetic control studies; the development of omics data resources; the identification of key molecular pathways via comparative gene expression studies; the accurate molecular characterization of genomic loci governing apomixis; the in-depth functional analysis of selected candidate genes in apomictic and model species; the successful building of a sexual/apomictic combined breeding scheme.