Meiosis is a critical biological process for reproduction and genetic variation in higher plants. Gene duplication is a prominent feature of plant genomic architecture. Meiosis and gene duplication are of fundamental importance in unraveling the nature of genetics and evolution. The ideas and findings in this letter demonstrate a highly significant connection between meiosis and gene duplication, bring together these two disparate fields of study and highlight the importance of meiosis for understanding the evolutionary success of flowering plants. These insights and opinions open a new area of investigation and point to a significant way to illustrate the impact of duplicated genes on meiosis and fitness in higher plants, as well as their ultimate evolutionary, ecological, and agronomic impacts in light of challenges that have arisen due to global climate change. This study addresses novel ideas and viewpoints in plant developmental genomics and evolution. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.