Reverse breeding is a new plant breeding strategy based on crossover suppression during meiosis. This brings forth unprecedented possibilities like the almost instantaneous generation of homozygous parents for a chosen heterozygote. As a proof of concept, an Arabidopsis (Columbia-Landsberg) heterozygote was created that carried a RNAi:DMC1 construct stopping crossover formation. Gametes of this heterozygote were grown directly into doubled haploid offspring. These offspring show different combinations of (non-recombinant) Columbia and Landsberg chromosomes. Among these doubled haploids we retrieved the original Columbia parent and a complete set of chromosome substitution lines. From among these we could easily select two so called “complementing DHs” from which the Col-Ler hybrid could be re-created. Essentially, breeders can now bring single choice uncharacterized heterozygotes into a hybrid breeding program by creating parental lines for them. Reverse breeding superficially resembles apomixis (clonal reproduction through seeds) since both allow the preservation of heterozygous genotypes. Reverse breeding, however, has very different uses because it generates homozygous breeding lines. It thus allows for the improvement of the starting heterozygote because new traits can be introgressed into its newly produced parental lines. Reverse breeding is thought to be suitable for crops with smaller chromosome numbers (x ≤ 12). It will be discussed how reverse breeding could be developed for such crops, and it will be shown how reverse breeding presents very interesting new possibilities studying epistasis and heterosis through chromosome substitution lines. Further experiments with reverse breeding lines allow testing of a variety of intriguing breeding questions like to what extent a (heterozygous) genome actually determines a plants phenotype.