Breeding of perennial plants is usually cumbersome and timeconsuming
due to their long reproductive cycle, high degree of
heterozygosity and complex reproductive biology and, so, the
potential of gamete biotechnology can represent, particularly for
them, a great advantage in comparison with the conventional
methods. In the present paper, a new anther culture system has
been developed for microspore embryogenesis in apricot. The evolution
of the in vitro system has been characterized from two-cell
and multicellular pollen grains to large multicellular proembryos,
indicating that the reprogramming of the microspore and the first
stages of the embryogenic pathway have been achieved. These
findings constitute a crucial step in the design of protocols for