Читать книгу Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding - George Acquaah - Страница 348

Apomixis, essentially, is a natural mechanism of cloning plants through seed. If it could be developed to become a breeding tool, it would allow plant breeders to develop hybrids that can retain their original genetic properties indefinitely with repeated use, without a need to reconstitute them. In other words, hybrid seed could be produced from hybrid seed. The plant breeder would not need to make crosses each year to produce the hybrid. This advantage would accelerate breeding programs and reduce development cost of hybrid cultivars. Apomixis would be greatly beneficial when uniformity of product is desired. Breeders could use this tool to quickly fix superior gene combinations. That is, vigor could be duplicated, generation after generation without decline. Furthermore, commercial hybrid production could be implemented for species without fertility control mechanisms (e.g. male‐sterility system); neither would there be a need for isolation in F₁ hybrid seed production. There would be no need to maintain and increase parental genotypes. Cultivar evaluation could proceed immediately following a cross. This advantage is applicable to clonal propagation in general.

In addition to these obvious benefits, it is anticipated that plant breeders will divert the resources saved (time, money) into other creative breeding ventures. For example, cultivars could be developed for smaller and more specific production environments. Also, more parental stock could be developed to reduce the risk of genetic vulnerability through the use of a few elite genetic stocks as parents in hybrid development.

There are some plant breeding concerns associated with apomixis. Species that exhibit partial apomixis are more challenging to breed because they produce both sexual and apomitic plants in the progeny. Complete apomicts are easier to breed by conventional methods.