Anther or microspore cultures (see Chap. 6)Culturing anthers (Fig. 1.2 ), or isolated microspores from anthers under suitableconditions, haploid plants can be obtained through somatic embryogenesis.Treating such plant material with, e.g., colchicines, it is possible to produce dihaploids,and if everything works out, within 1 year (this depends on the plant species)a fertile homozygous dihaploid plant can be produced from a heterozygous motherplant. This method is advantageous for hybrid breeding, by substantially reducingthe time required to establish inbred lines.