Creation of F1 hybrid varieties that typically produce better yields is traditionally achieved by breeding homozygous parent plants. Aside from the time breeding takes, uncharacterized heterozygotes cannot easily be converted into homozygous parental breeding lines, as desirable allele combinations are lost through recombination during meiosis. That obstacle has been overcome by Wijnker et al. who have reverse bred Arabidopsis thaliana parental lines from heterozygous hybrids using a process that involves preventing meiotic crossing over. The authors used RNA interference (RNAi) to silence DISRUPTED MEIOTIC cDNA1 (DMC1) to reduce the genetic variation in the spores. The pollen was used to generate reverse-breeding haploids from which fertile double haploids were grown (double the number of chromosomes). By crossing complementary pairs of double haploids, they recreated the original heterozygous hybrid. A key advantage of this method is the possibility of obtaining breeding lines for any heterozygote. Crops in which this technology might prove useful include cucumber, sorghum and rice, but it won't be suitable for plants with more than 12 chromosomes, such as potato and soybean. (Nat. Genet. doi:10.1038/ng.2203, advance online publication, 11 March 2012)