Reproduction of hybrid plants

[APC]

I'm trying to do some coursework right now and having trouble getting my head around hybrids. From what I understand, and this may be incorrect:

"This is where two compatible species are crossed in order to create a better plant. Ideally, this will result in the better qualities of two or more species being passed over to the resulting seed. The qualities sought include vigour, fruit yield, form and disease resistance".

Am I right in thinking that you can cross two plants but then the offspring of the resulting plant will not be true to the original hybrid? Therefore this means that can't reproduce successfully from hybrids so have to go back to the original parent plants and hybridise those?

It only needs a brief overview of not more than a few lines. Am I on the right lines? I'm then going on to write about Dutch elm disease resistant elms. I'm not after this answering for me, just a nod or a shakey head please. Cheers!

[Hobjob]

Try
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_(biology)

Sorry for the cop-out, but its a complicated subject and has rather changed since I did my A level biology
And with the way genetics is advancing it will change again too I suspect.

The F1 is the form that most shops sell as good flowering / cropping plants. Not wise to breed from as you will get mixtures next year.

"A brief overview" suggests that your teachers may be a bit curriculum bound.

Originally Posted by APC

I'm trying to do some coursework right now and having trouble getting my head around hybrids. From what I understand, and this may be incorrect:

"This is where two compatible species are crossed in order to create a better plant. Ideally, this will result in the better qualities of two or more species being passed over to the resulting seed. The qualities sought include vigour, fruit yield, form and disease resistance".

Am I right in thinking that you can cross two plants but then the offspring of the resulting plant will not be true to the original hybrid? Therefore this means that can't reproduce successfully from hybrids so have to go back to the original parent plants and hybridise those?

It only needs a brief overview of not more than a few lines. Am I on the right lines? I'm then going on to write about Dutch elm disease resistant elms. I'm not after this answering for me, just a nod or a shakey head please. Cheers!

[Paul mabbott]

What is the course - botany, plant technology, biology? Your comment seems to have two things mixed up.
True hybrids (by my definition!) are formed by crossing two species of the same genus - in plants cross generic hybrids may also occur. Hybrids may breed but cannot produce viable offspring (again, this is more complex in plants than in animals).
Plant breeders use hybrid in another way which involves them producing F1 'hybrids' of the same species - in effect they take two varieties (with strongly different genotypes/phenotypes) to produce a seed with different properties including good growth properties, disease resistance or simply new flower colour! Clearly if these plants are crossed then they will return to the general genomic selection ....
I'm sure I've not explained that very well (it's getting near dinner time!) but I think you need to read up on the two different uses of the word 'hybrid'! Good luck!

Originally Posted by APC

I'm trying to do some coursework right now and having trouble getting my head around hybrids. From what I understand, and this may be incorrect:

"This is where two compatible species are crossed in order to create a better plant. Ideally, this will result in the better qualities of two or more species being passed over to the resulting seed. The qualities sought include vigour, fruit yield, form and disease resistance".

Am I right in thinking that you can cross two plants but then the offspring of the resulting plant will not be true to the original hybrid? Therefore this means that can't reproduce successfully from hybrids so have to go back to the original parent plants and hybridise those?

It only needs a brief overview of not more than a few lines. Am I on the right lines? I'm then going on to write about Dutch elm disease resistant elms. I'm not after this answering for me, just a nod or a shakey head please. Cheers!

[Dorts]

As to whether the resulting plants from any hybridization are 'better', is purly subjective, particularly in horticulture and agriculture.
To produce a new, worthwile rose variety for example via hybridization can take up to ten years and require the growing of hundreds of plants resulting from the initial crosses.

In the wild hybridization can produce plants through the complete range, ie. from those almost identical to each parent, to those that are completely intermidiate.

Hybrids themselves can often be fertile, sometimes resulting in strange and bizzare progeny. The first crosses are known as F1 Hybrids, second crosses, F2 and so on.

A 'brief overview in a few lines' is not really possible as has already been shown, it is a vast subject.
Dorts.

[posie]

By my pond there is a beautiful weeping birch, but it's offspring do not weep, I do not understand why, but guess the answer is in one of the previous posts...Posie..

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by posie

By my pond there is a beautiful weeping birch, but it's offspring do not weep, I do not understand why, but guess the answer is in one of the previous posts...Posie..

In the plant world there is often much variation. Your Weeping Birch was originally discovered in the wild, just the result of natural variation. From that tree it was possible to take small shoots and graft them onto a 'normal' Birch tree.

And so on, and so on. So all Weeping Birch trees like yours have come from that one original tree. But as its parents were of the 'normal' kind, the chances are very strong that any seedlings from your tree will also be 'normal'
Dorts.

[Meta menardi]

One example of the problems with hybrid vigour is that sometimes you don't get what you want.

I cattle breeding, Jersey has been crossed with Fresians to get the high quality milk from the Jersey with the high yield of Fresians. They got low yield from the Jersey and low quality from the Fresian. This was many years ago.

[APC]

Re: "brief overview", it is literally a case of "define", not an essay on hybrids. It's part of the RFS cert in arb coursework which I'm doing by distance learning. Therefore it has a tree-related twang to it.

Thanks for the help on this one!

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by APC

"This is where two compatible species are crossed in order to create a better plant. Ideally, this will result in the better qualities of two or more species being passed over to the resulting seed. The qualities sought include vigour, fruit yield, form and disease resistance".

Re-reading your original post, which I guess came from your books or tutors, there seems a fundamental confusion.

If the word 'species' was substituted with 'sub-species' or 'variety' then that describes the common horticultural situation. Thsi to me seems more like a form of selective breeding, but is often called "hybrid" production.

True species hybrids would be zebra and horse, or horse and donkey, different species of goose, ditto duck etc.. Falconry does it with owls and eagles. There is a grizzly bear polo bear animal.

True species hybrids in the plant world is very much more common (and complicated). Primrose and cowslips (--> false oxlip), black with white poplars, midland with common hawthorn etc.. These occur in the natural world without man's help.

Wheat has various lines that have multiple copies of the chromosome, hence the development of different wheats for bread-making etc..

Your curriculul or teacher seems not to have made it clear to you what they are talking about

[Meta menardi]

Perhaps this information is what is wanted? Often finding out just what the question is about is to go a long way to answering it.