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Topics => General Board => Topic started by: Pandora on February 22, 2011, 12:42:43 PM

Title: Scientists work on plant hybrid true-breed reproduction
Post by: Pandora on February 22, 2011, 12:42:43 PM
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110217141315.htm

Quote
Plants have for the first time been cloned as seeds. The research by aUC Davis plant scientists and their international collaborators, published Feb. 18 in the journal Science, is a major step towards making hybrid crop plants that can retain favorable traits from generation to generation.

Most successful crop varieties are hybrids, said Simon Chan, assistant professor of plant biology at UC Davis and an author of the paper. But when hybrids go through sexual reproduction, their traits, such as fruit size or frost resistance, get scrambled and may be lost.

H/T Mark H @ Grouchies