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OUTCROSSING DEFINITION. “Out-crossing or out-breeding is the practice of introducing unrelated genetic material into a breeding line. It increases genetic diversity, thus reducing the probability of an individual being subject to disease or genetic abnormalities.” https://lnkd.in/dyxbktg View in LinkedIn

RANGE OF STRATEGIES. "Biological reproduction is the production of offspring by sexual or asexual processes. Among most groups of organisms are species that produce sexual and asexual offspring (e.g., bacteria, fungi, invertebrates), but flowering plants (angiosperms) display the widest range of strategies for achieving both reproductive modes." https://lnkd.in/dWczCFf View in LinkedIn

QUITE DISTINCT. "In plants, clonal growth and selfing result from entirely different structures and processes, and the selective forces responsible for their respective origins and maintenance are quite distinct." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/29/8859.full View in LinkedIn

PLURAL RAMETS = GENET. "Ramet "and “genet” refer to the unit or module of clonal growth (shoot) and the entire clone or genotype, respectively. A genet is therefore a collection of ramets descended from a single seedling arising from sexual reproduction. The ramets of a clone may or may not be physically separated and physiologically autonomous, depending on the type of clonal strategy." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/29/8859.full View in LinkedIn

GENETS BEGET RAMETS. "The commonest type of asexual reproduction is clonal growth (vegetative propagation) in which parental genotypes (genets) produce vegetative modules (ramets) that are capable of independent growth, reproduction, and often dispersal." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/29/8859.full View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this consideration of the most abundant protein fold in nature. It is also one of the most functionally flexible. It is a case study of how nature borrows from the existing toolbox of molecular and genetic options to elaborate innovative structures, continually modifying an existing template to find new functionality. Viruses are at the cutting edge of lifestyle innovation, and their promiscuous gene sharing has led to an abundance of their tools in other kingdoms. View in LinkedIn

SONG OF DARWIN. "The more I study nature, the more I become impressed […] that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations [acquired through natural selection] transcend in an incomparable degree [those] which the most fertile imagination of the most imaginative man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal." https://lnkd.in/eykUy37 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE for this and next weekend focuses on the vexing issue of hybrids, starting with a case study of hybrid rhododendrons, and then to animal hybrids. The transition into a species for a population, which is generally unable to breed with organisms outside that species, is a central tenet of evolutionary theory. But the case study shows that this assignment can be more difficult than it seems. View in LinkedIn

HETEROSTYLY AND SELF. “The morph phenotype is genetically linked to genes responsible for a unique system of self-incompatibility, termed heteromorphic self-incompatibility, that is, the pollen from a flower on one morph cannot fertilize another flower of the same morph.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterostyly View in LinkedIn

“HERKOGAMY is a common strategy employed by hermaphroditic angiosperms to reduce sexual interference between male (anthers) and female (stigma) function. Herkogamy differs from other such strategies (e.g. dichogamy) by supplying a spatial separation of the anthers and stigma.” https://lnkd.in/dAT6_q2 View in LinkedIn