In a new study published in Nature Genetics, led by Charles Underwood from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany, scientists established a system to generate clonal sex cells in tomato plants and used them to design the genomes of offspring.
The fertilization of a clonal egg from one parent by a clonal sperm from another parent led to plants containing the complete genetic information of both parents.
Hybrid seeds, combining two different parent lines with specific favorable traits, are popular in agriculture as they give rise to robust crops with enhanced productivity, and have been utilized by farmers for more than a hundred years.
The increased performance of hybrids is generally known as hybrid vigor, or heterosis, and has been observed in many different plant (and animal) species. However, the heterosis effect no longer persists in the subsequent generations of these hybrids due to the segregation of genetic information.
Read more at phys.org