We explored the outcomes of mutating the orthologues of FANCM, RECQ4 or FIGL1 on recombination in three distant crop species, rice (Oryza sativa), pea (Pisum sativum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). We uncovered that the single recq4 mutation boosts crossovers about 3-fold in these crops, suggesting that manipulating RECQ4 might be an common software for raising recombination in crops.