That means the seedlings grown from a variety will also have the same unique characteristic of the parent plant. Thus, an heirloom plant is often a private, home-garden reaction against this type of macro-farming, frequently passed generationally like a family heirloom. Many cultivated mutations are also selected at some point in their history — isolating, preserving, and reproducing their unique genetic code. Lab-crafted hybrids are often backcrossed with a parent plant, to reinforce a particular genetic trait like disease resistance or seed size. In a typical backcrossing scenario, Parent Plant A will have a characteristic that the breeder wants to introduce to the makeup of Parent Plant B.

Source: Ethiopian News December 12, 2018 15:56 UTC