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Hybrid question


Devon.B

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Hello,

I still do not fully understand some stuff about how hybrids work. I have a few questions.

I was looking at Khelljuhg's website that lists Drosera hybrids, and noticed some interesting crosses involving three or more species.

This one confused me the most: Drosera [[anglica "Hawaii" X anglica "Canada"] X [anglica "Hawaii" X spatulata "Australia"]]] X tokaiensis

I was wondering how Drosera anglica could be crossed with Drosera x [anglica x spatulata], since Drosera x [anglica x spatulata] is normally sterile. And would Drosera x [[anglica] x [anglica x spatulata]] not be sterile as well, making it impossible to cross with Drosera x tokaiensis? Would the hybrids first have to be made into polyploids of some sort first to then be hybridized again?

Do certain hybrids only have sterile pollen and functioning ovaries, and that's why they can be cross? Could it be the same vice versa?

Sorry if I am not using the correct terminology as I am new most of this.

One more question. . . How come there aren't many pictures of these interesting hybrids? :woot:

Thanks!

Edited by Devon.B
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Well the thing is D. spatulata might not be quite as homogenous as you might think it is... It appears to have a couple of ploidy levels in nature. While one kind of D. spatulata might not work or form fertile hybrids, one with a different number of chromosomes just might work instead. The DNA becomes more incompatible between different species generally based on how long they have not been part of the same species, but there are other ways the DNA becomes incompatible like the chromosomes becoming rearranged and/or differently shaped so the DNA from the different parent cannot match up resulting in there not being enough functional DNA to keep the plant alive. With infertile hybrids, there is enough DNA to keep them alive, but it is too mismatched to functional sexually, as nearly all recombinations fail like trying to make one picture out of two different puzzles. BTW, I'm not sure that plant even exists.

Edited by Dave Evans
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