Quote:
Originally Posted by Stray59
Not only a good question - also and excellent answer! I have always been told Pod parent first, pollen parent second. I had no idea about the RHS deciding not to place correct breeding order on all the crosses. It could be that as they did not know about DNA contributions, they probably thought that it did not matter which carried the seed and which contributed the pollen. Very interesting to know as I wanted to make some of the old crosses again, using plants I already have. You have given me reason to pause over this revelation -
Hummmm!
Happy Holidays !!!
Steve
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Steve, I wouldn't characterize it exactly as you did. The statement that RHS decided not to give correct breeding order is too strong. They do give the order of the cross in the initial registration (subject to the honesty and intelligence of the registrant). However, the decision made before computers existed (way before) by Sanders to consider all crosses between two parents to be the same GREX has carried forward to this day. You cannot correct that except by recording GREX names based on parent order. Thus the crosses between two parents could have two different names.
That scenario has a downside also. First, there is no way to resurrect the historical data. Second it would require researching two names to look up a cross. We could clearly now handle the data load, but for the value it would add it doesn't seem worthwhile.
At some point the use of a certain cultivar for breeding boils down to evaluating its phenotype. While correct genotype information would certainly be useful, the range of nuclear DNA variation is such that it typically comes down to evaluating the physical properties of the cultivar to be used in breeding.
I know that I am arguing both ends of the stick, but there are valid issues to be argued. I, for one, argue against two names for the same cross, but others probably feel differently.
Hybrid Mode
