So I’ve been thinking about breeding and plant genetics. The interesting thing about plants is how they are different from sexually reproducing organisms.
In a plant embrio the chromosomes mutate and combine to form a new organism, while in animals the chromosomes do not combine but only mutate. Further, sexual characteristics are assigned by a genetic sex marker which the male adds to pollen, so sex is randomly determined by the addition of sex markers by the male plant.
What I am getting at is that males and females, at least from a phenotypic viewpoint are phenotypically identical. Obviously, the plants themselves are different but the processes as well as the genes in both male and female are identical. The only difference is the addition of the male sex marker in male plants. The only thing a male does is add a sex marker to the chromosome.
What this means from a breeding perspective is that in using female pollen instead of male, the results in the offspring are the same, statistically males and females pass on the exact same genes. The downside of this is when you start using female pollen in a line, the males will obviously not be genetic equals and would need to be re-breed to get back up to par for reintroduction to the line.
Anyone have any experience or thoughts to share on this?
