Meiosis and mitosis - if you took high school biology, you might be familiar with these scientific terms. If you didn't take the class or if it's been far too long for you to even begin to recall, here's a refresher:

Meiosis - During meiosis, the pollen and ova of most major crops becomes "genetically shuffled" when a single cell splits into four cells. Each cell carries one-half of the parent cell.

Mitosis - Some plant species reproduce asexually and generate seeds by splitting into two cells with matching genes, of which their offspring are clones.

Why it's important
In a study published Monday in Public Library of Science Biology, French biologists found that this form of reproduction is linked to a gene mutation that stops sex cell division after the first parent cell split. When they added this and two other meiosis-regulating mutations to A. thaliana, the plant produced genetically matched pollen and ova through mitosis rather than meiosis.

What this means
Though this has only been tested on A. thaliana thus far, the next step will be finding out if the process works on other plants, notably staple crops like wheat and corn. This could change the way plants reproduce and mean a whole new way of growing food in the future. Though it's probably safe to assume we're still years away from eating cloned crops, it will be interesting to see if the food that results from these genetically-altered crops faces the same controversy as cloned meat has.

» Wired