Month: September 2022

FIXED GENOTYPE. "Apomicts produce clonal offspring, such that apomixis could be used to transgenerationally fix any genotype, including that of F1 hybrids, which are used in agriculture due to their superior vigor and yield." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215015766 View in LinkedIn

NOT COMMON. "Since apomixis has not been retrieved in major crop species, research is mainly focussed on the genetic engineering of apomixis and hence on the identification of genes that underlie its major components." https://lnkd.in/dRCvaGr View in LinkedIn

SMALL PROBLEM. "Traits (phenotypes) do not only result from a complex combination of genetic and environmental variation but can also be influenced by epigenetic variation, which can be transgenerationally heritable in plants." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215015766 View in LinkedIn

NEEDS DATA. "Hence, it is far from clear whether genetic fixation by apomixis suffices to fix the agriculturally relevant phenotypes of F1 hybrids, in particular because hybridization was recently shown to induce epigenetic changes." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215015766 View in LinkedIn

DATA SUPPLIED. "Here, we show that the phenotypes of Hieracium pilosella hybrids can be fixed across generations by apomixis." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215015766 View in LinkedIn

IN PROCESS. "Although it has a complex inheritance, genes controlling apomictic reproduction are being identified. Transfer of apomixis to crop species through wide crosses has not been successful so far, but transgenic technology offers a more powerful way to introgress apomixis into crop species." https://lnkd.in/dTm5T5f View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues the theme from last weekend of hybrids, but strays into the theme of gradual versus sudden leaps of evolution and the lovely concept of hopeful monsters. Hybridization as a source of genetic novelty and new species has long fascinated biologists, but many natural hybrids are sterile, making them ‘sports of transmutations’ (Wordsworth). Enjoy this partly historical view of the subject. View in LinkedIn

GRADUALISTIC EVOLUTION. "Since the origin of evolutionary science, biologists have insisted that adaptation is an achingly slow process. ' Natura non facit saltum ' (nature does not take leaps) was a favourite incantation of Charles Darwin. As the combined power of genetic mutation and natural selection became better appreciated in the 1930s and 1940s, theorists solidified a gradualist doctrine: adaptation must rely on innumerable genetic changes, each with effects so small that any attempt to catch them experimentally was considered futile." https://lnkd.in/dAC2mFa View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTION BY SALTATIONS. "Suggestions to the contrary (to gradualism) were met with ridicule: geneticist Richard Goldschmidt, in 1940, envisioned subtle developmental mechanisms producing great leaps of adaptation, but his use of the phrase "hopeful monsters" was misrepresented as extreme saltationism (perfection in one jump), and equated with belief in miracles." https://lnkd.in/dAC2mFa View in LinkedIn

HOPEFUL MONSTERS. "The origin of novelty is a critical subject for evolutionary biologists. Early geneticists speculated about the sudden appearance of new species via special macromutations, epitomized by Goldschmidt’s infamous “hopeful monster”." http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11692-012-9209-0 View in LinkedIn