From: Joe and Ellen Hecksel <jhecksel@voyager.net>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Selective Cuttings
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 16:42:47 -0400
mIEKAL wrote
My understanding is YES you can make a selective cuttings...
I saw an academic paper out of University of Minnesota where researchers
took Burbank Russet potato meristems. They used enzymes to dissolve the
lump to the individual cell level. They then grew plantlets out of each
cell.
They saw wide variation in each plant with regard to potato shape,
blight resistance, etc. They postulated that complex plants, especially
older ones, are really mosaics of cells. They only appear uniform when
viewed from a macroscopic distance...just like most high elevation shots
of crowds look similar, regardless of the team's colors.
The researches also suggested that this might be a good way to select
disease resistance without going through sexual propagation. Their
thinking being that you were less likely to lose quality in the fruit/tuber.
Figs were one of the first fruits domesticated. I suppose some of the
clones might be several thousand years old. That is a long time for UV
and background radiation to meddle with the DNA and create the "mosaic"
described the the U. Minn researchers.