Do plants of different species interbreed? How to cross plants at home. Plant crossing. hybridological analysis. We develop our own varieties of flowers

It is called sexual crossing of two individuals that differ from each other by more or less signs. They may belong to two varieties, races, varieties of the same species, two species of the same genus, or different genera of the same family. In most cases, the closer the crossed individuals are to each other, the more likely it is to get viable and fertile offspring.

Sexual hybridization is of great importance and application in practical crop production. Very many of our cultivated plants, as has already been pointed out, are sexual hybrids, partly obtained naturally in nature and taken from there into culture, partly bred by artificial crosses.

The ability for sexual hybridization in some families or individual genera and species turns out to be greater, in others less. Sometimes hybridization between morphologically closely related species fails, while it succeeds between more distant ones.

Sexual hybridization is most easily carried out between varieties and varieties belonging to the same species. Hybrids between species are obtained for the most part small in number, not very viable and infertile in the future; hybrids between genera are obtained much less frequently and in the future in most cases are sterile.

Research by I. V. Michurin showed that the sterility of hybrids in many cases is temporary.

Often, when crossing, the first generation of hybrids is characterized by extremely powerful development, exceeding the parental forms by several times in size. This phenomenon is called heterosis. In the offspring of hybrids obtained sexually, plants usually return to the previous size of their progenitors. But if such giant hybrids can reproduce vegetatively, then the resulting gigantism will also appear in vegetatively bred offspring. In this way, large varieties of root and tuber crops, ornamental trees and herbaceous plants with very large flowers, etc. can be bred. Annual new breeding of annual heterotic plants is also possible to increase their production, for example, in Tobacco, tomatoes, corn, etc.

In some cases of infertility of hybrids, it is possible, with the help of systematic subsequent crossings, to restore their fertility.

When crossing sexual hybrids of different species with each other, it was possible to obtain forms that are hybrids between 3, 4 or more species.

The issue of dominance - the predominance in the hybrid of certain traits of the parents or their ancestors - is the most important issue in breeding, in breeding new varieties.

I. V. Michurin believed that the hybrid does not represent something in between the producers. The heredity of a hybrid is composed only of those traits of producing plants and their ancestors, which in the early

stages of development of the hybrid are favored by external conditions. The dominance of certain traits also depends on the unequal power of producers in the sense of transmitting their traits to offspring. To a greater extent, the signs are transmitted: 1) species growing in the wild; 2) an older variety by origin; 3) an older individual plant; 4) older flowers in the crown. The mother plant, other things being equal, will transfer its properties more fully than the father plant, but if the conditions for growing hybrids are more favorable for the father plant, then its characteristics may dominate.

Plants weakened by drought or cold spring have a weaker power to transmit their hereditary properties.

To overcome the non-crossing of distant systematic species, I. V. Michurin developed a number of effective and very interesting methods from a general biological point of view.

The mediator method is that if any two species do not interbreed with each other, then one of them is crossed with some third, with which both of these species can be crossed. The resulting hybrid - "intermediary" - has a greater ability to cross, and it can be successfully crossed with the second of those species that were planned for crossing. I. V. Michurin used this method when crossing wild almond (Amygdalus nana) with peach; the intermediary here was a hybrid obtained from crossing the wild almond with the North American David peach ( prunus davidiana). Further research has shown that such complex hybrid forms have a wide ability to interbreed with those species with which their original parental forms do not interbreed.

The method of "vegetative convergence", used by I. V. Michurin to overcome non-crossing, consists in the fact that a young seedling of one of the plants to be crossed is grafted into the crown of another, adult plant, with which it is desirable to cross. This seedling, unstable as an unformed organism, gradually changes until the time of flowering under the influence of a more powerful rootstock, approaches it in properties and crosses with it in the future better than the original form without grafting. I. V. Michurin used this method, for example, when hybridizing an apple tree and a mountain ash with a pear.

A method of using a pollen mixture, which also facilitates crossbreeding, is to mix a small amount of the pollen of the mother (pollinated) plant with the pollen of the pollinating plant. Presumably, pollen from one's own species makes the stigma more susceptible to pollination by foreign pollen. These methods are now widely used in breeding work with a variety of plants. It is also used to mix pollen of a third type or variety, which can also stimulate pollination by pollen, without this method it does not give results.

An important role in the works of I. V. Michurin was played by the education of young hybrid seedlings with unstable heredity. Distant hybridization without further directed education often does not give the desired results. A targeted effect on hybrids is achieved by various methods, including by grafting, or by the mentor method, in which the strengthening of certain properties is repeatedly caused in the hybrid. The mentor method is based on the mutual influence of rootstock and scion. It was used by I. V. Michurin in two versions. With the so-called

cuttings of a young hybrid seedling are grafted into the crown of one of its adult producers, the quality of which (for example, frost resistance) is desirable to be increased in the hybrid. The grafted hybrid, under the powerful influence of the rootstock (stand mentor), acquires to a greater extent the property desired by the hybridizer (in this example, frost resistance). Or, for example, from a seedling, a hybrid between green renklod plum and sloe, the eyes were taken and grafted: one on the renklod, the other on the sloe. In the first case, in the future, a plant with signs of renklod (Renklod thorn) was obtained, in the second case with signs of thorns (Sweet thorn). The reverse effect of the scion on the stock is reflected in the so-called grafting mentor, when, for example, by grafting several cuttings of an old variety (grafting mentor), which is characterized by abundant fruiting, into the crown of a young seedling, it is possible to speed up and improve the fruiting of the stock; with other combinations of grafted plants, this method, on the contrary, succeeded in delaying the ripening of fruits, lengthening their ability to remain in bed, etc.

These new principles and methods of work, discovered by IV Michurin, are of great importance. The selection of pairs during hybridization by preliminary biological analysis of the parents, the directed cultivation of hybrids, and the acceleration of the breeding of new varieties—all this is now widely used in the breeding of new varieties of cultivated plants.

By crossing hard wheats ( Triticum durum) with soft ( Triticum vulgare) obtained some new valuable varieties of wheat. Rye-wheat hybrids have been obtained, which are of interest both by themselves and for further crosses again with wheat in order to obtain hybrids with high grain quality of wheat and cold resistance of rye. Work is underway to cross wheat with wild couch grass (N.V. Tsitsin), with perennial wild rye. By crossing potatoes with its wild relatives, varieties of potatoes were obtained that are resistant to damage by a fungus dangerous for potatoes - late blight. Work is underway to cross annual sunflowers with perennials, sugarcane, which has a very long growing season, with its wild relatives with a shorter growing season, cultivated watermelons with drought-resistant wild relatives, etc. Planned management of the development of plants (and animals) and the creation of new their forms, based on a deep study of complex biological relationships and the discovery of the patterns of life, constitute the theoretical basis of Soviet breeding.

We will tell you how to cross between two varieties of the same plant species - this method is called hybridization. Let it be plants of different colors or differing in the shape of petals, leaves. Or perhaps they will differ in terms of flowering or requirements for external conditions?

Choose plants that bloom quickly to speed up the experiment. It is also better to start with unpretentious flowers - for example, foxglove, calendula or delphiniums.

The course of the experiment and the diary of observations

First, formulate your goals - what do you want to get from the experiment. What are the desired traits for new varieties?

Keep a notebook-diary where you write down the goals and record the progress of the experiment from beginning to end.

Do not forget to describe in detail the original plants, and then the resulting hybrids. Here are the most important points: plant health, growth intensity, size, color, aroma, flowering time.

flower structure

In our article, a flower will be considered as an example, you can see it in the diagram and in the photographs.

The appearance of flowers in different plants can vary significantly, but basically the same.

flower pollination

1. Start by choosing two plants. One will pollinator, and the other seed plant. Choose healthy and strong plants.

2. Keep a close eye on the seed plant. Choose an unblown bud with which you will carry out all manipulations, mark it. In addition, it will have to isolate before opening- tying it in a linen light bag. As soon as the flower begins to open, cut off all the stamens from it to avoid accidental pollination.

3. Once the flower of the seed plant is fully opened, put pollen on it from a pollinator plant. Pollen can be transferred with a cotton swab, a brush, or by tearing out the stamens of the pollinating flower and bringing them directly to the seed. Apply the pollen to the stigma of the flower of the seed plant.

4.Put on the flower of the seed plant linen bag. Do not forget to make the necessary notes in the diary of observations - about the time of pollination.

5. To be safe, repeat the operation with pollination after a while - for example, after a couple of days (depending on the timing of flowering).

Obtaining hybrids

1. If pollination went well, then soon the flower will begin to fade, and the ovary will increase. Do not remove the bag from the plant until the seeds are ripe.

2. Plant the resulting seeds as seedlings. When will you receive young hybrid plants, then give them a separate place in the garden or transplant them into boxes.

3. Now wait for the hybrids to bloom. Don't forget to write down all your observations in your diary. Among the first, and even the second generation, there may be flowers that exactly repeat the parental properties without changes. Such copies are rejected immediately. Check in with your goals and select among the received new plants those that best fit the desired characteristics. You can also pollinate them by hand, or isolate them.

If you decide to seriously engage in breeding new varieties, then you will need the advice of a specialist breeder. The fact is that you will need to find out whether you really have bred a new variety or are you following the path already beaten by someone. Competition in the field of creating new varieties is very high.

For those who decide to experiment with hybridization as a home hobby, we wish to get a lot of pleasure from this activity, make many joyful discoveries and finally give all our gardening friends a new variety of some wonderful flower named after itself.

In the 30s. of the last century N.I. Vavilov noted that the problem of creating disease-resistant crop varieties can be solved in two ways: by selection in the narrow sense of the word (selection of resistant plants among existing forms) and by hybridization (crossing different plants with each other). Plant breeding methods for immunity to pathogenic organisms are not specific. They are modifications of conventional breeding methods. The main difficulties in creating immune varieties are the need to simultaneously take into account the characteristics of plants and harmful organisms that damage them. At the moment, in breeding for resistance, all generally accepted modern methods of breeding work are used: hybridization, selection, as well as polyploidy, experimental mutagenesis, biotechnology and genetic engineering.

One of the main difficulties in plant breeding for immunity is the genetic linkage of plant traits that reflect their phylogenetic history in natural ecosystems. In the process of spontaneous domestication and the formation of highly productive and high-quality forms of plants, their immune system was weakened. In those cases where selection is carried out without attention to immunity, the weakening of the latter takes place in our time.

The most important task of breeding, genetics, and molecular biology is to find ways to combine high productivity and other economically valuable properties of plants with signs of their immunity. It is desirable that the basis of immunity be polygenic.

The simplest solution is when it is possible to isolate plants from the population of an existing variety that are highly immune to one specific pathogen. For such selection, different selection methods and analytical methods can be used, which take into account the heterosis of the variety population.

When drawing up breeding programs, the type of pollination of a plant population is very important (cross-pollination, self-pollination or the population belongs to an intermediate group). Breeding work for immunity to a pathogen should be carried out taking into account the following factors: in the population of plants of the first group, the unit of analysis is an individual plant, the other unit is the population (variety or line).

Traditional breeding methods in creating genotypes resistant to diseases and pests

Selection. Both in nature in general and in human breeding activities, selection is the main process of obtaining new forms (the formation of species and varieties, the creation of breeds, varieties). Selection is most effective when working with self-pollinating crops, as well as plants that reproduce vegetatively (clonal selection).

In breeding for resistance, selection is effectively used both by itself (it is the main method when working with necrotrophic pathogens), and as a component of the breeding process, without which it is generally impossible to do with any breeding methods. In practical selection for resistance, two types of selection are used: mass and individual.

Mass selection is the oldest breeding method, thanks to which varieties of the so-called folk selection were created, and is still a valuable source material for modern breeders. This is a type of selection in which a large number of plants are selected from the initial population in the field that meet the requirements for the future variety, immediately evaluating a set of traits (including resistance to certain diseases). The harvest of all selected plants is combined and sown in the next year in the form of one plot. The result of mass selection is the offspring of the total mass of the best plants selected for a certain trait (s).

The main advantages of mass selection are its simplicity and the ability to quickly improve a large amount of material. The disadvantages include the fact that the material selected by mass selection cannot be checked with offspring and determine its genetic value, and therefore, it is impossible to isolate varieties or hybrids that are valuable in breeding terms from the population and use them for further work.

Individual selection (pedigree) - one of the most effective modern methods of breeding for resistance. Hybridization, artificial mutagenesis, biotechnology and genetic engineering are primarily suppliers of material for individual selection - the next stage of selection work extracts the most valuable from the provided material.

The essence of the method lies in the fact that individual resistant plants are selected from the initial population, the offspring of each of which are subsequently propagated and studied separately.

Both individual and mass selection can be one-time and reusable.

One-time selection mainly used in the selection of self-pollinating crops. One-time individual selection provides for a consistent study in all links of the selection process, selected once for a certain plant trait. One-time mass selection is more often and most effectively used to improve the variety in seed production practice. Therefore, it is also called healing.

Multiple selections are more suitable and effective in the selection of cross-pollinated crops, their effectiveness is determined primarily by the degree of heterozygosity of the source material. Through repeated mass selection, resistance to necrotrophs is maintained - pathogens such as fusarium, gray and white rot, etc. Using this method, highly resistant to and.

Hybridization. Currently, one of the most used methods in breeding for resistance is hybridization - crossing genotypes with different hereditary abilities and obtaining hybrids that combine the properties of parental forms.

In breeding for disease resistance, hybridization is expedient and effective if at least one parental form is a carrier of hereditary factors that can provide genetic protection for the future variety or hybrid from potentially dangerous strains and races of the pathogen.

As noted earlier, such hereditary factors (effective resistance genes) were formed in the centers of related evolution of host plants and their pathogens. Many of them have already been transferred to cultivated plants from their wild relatives through distant hybridization. These are now known as crop resistance genes.

But the indisputable fact is that today most of these genes are widely used in breeding and have mostly lost their effectiveness, overcome as a result of the variability of pathogens. That's why intraspecific hybridization (between plants of the same species) in the creation of disease-resistant varieties or hybrids in some cases is unpromising. In order to obtain positive results, the breeder, involving in crossings one or another parental form, must be sure of the high efficiency of their resistance genes to the population of the pathogen in the place of future cultivation of the variety (hybrid).

Against this background, the increasing importance in breeding for resistance is becoming distant hybridization (between plants from different botanical taxa). After all, plants of wild and primitive species are characterized by the most pronounced immunity. The genomes of wild relatives of cultivated plants have been and remain the main natural source of resistance genes, including complex immunity. Crossing cultivated plants of existing varieties with wild species usually allows you to increase the immunogenetic properties. And if earlier the use of distant hybridization was not very popular due to the difficulties associated with the imbalance of the genomes of parental forms, the linkage of resistance with economically undesirable traits, then methods have now been developed to resolve problematic issues.

Remote hybridization makes it possible to transfer ecological plasticity, resistance to adverse environmental factors, diseases and other valuable properties and qualities from wild-growing plants to cultivated ones. Varieties and new forms of grain, vegetable, industrial and other crops have been created on the basis of distant hybridization. For example, the source of wheat immunity genes to, and is endemic to the Transcaucasus Triticum dicoccoides Korn.

As world practice shows, a very effective type of hybridization in the selection of self-pollinating crops for resistance is backcrosses (backcrosses) when a hybrid is crossed with one of the parent forms. This method is also called the method of "repair" of varieties, since it allows you to improve a certain variety for a particular trait that it lacks (in particular, resistance to a particular disease). But it should be borne in mind that the use of this method does not allow exceeding the productivity of a variety that is “repaired” (and according to the requirements of the State Service for the Protection of Rights to Plant Varieties of Ukraine, a variety cannot be registered if it does not exceed the standard in terms of productivity).

As a rule, in backcrossing, a disease resistance donor variety is used as the mother form, and an unstable but highly productive variety (resistance recipient) is used as the parent form. As a result of their crossing, hybrids are obtained, which are re-crossed with the parent form (backcrossing). A prerequisite is that the mother forms for each next backcross are selected from resistant hybrid plants of the previous crossing, found against an infectious background. The offspring are selected according to the phenotype of the recipient variety. Backcrosses are carried out until the genotype and phenotype of the recipient is almost completely restored, while acquiring resistance to the disease characteristic of the donor.

An increase in the efficiency of plant breeding for immunity to pests can be achieved by using previously created so-called immunity synthetics (known, for example, for corn). Mentioned synthetics are created on the basis of crossing 8-10 immune lines, characterized by different ecological plasticity and composition of immunity factors. Many of the synthetics are good sources for creating immune lines for the further development of single and double interline hybrids.

Mutagenesis. Unlike hybridization methods, they are quite laborious and require many years of work to achieve the final result, experimental (artificial) mutagenesis makes it possible to increase plant variability in a short period and obtain resistance mutations that are not found in nature.

The method of experimental (artificial) mutagenesis is based on the directed action on plants of various physical and chemical mutagens (ionizing, ultraviolet, laser radiation, chemicals), as a result of which gene mutations occur in plant organisms (changes in the molecular structure of the gene), chromosomal mutations (changes in structures of chromosomes) or genomic (changes in sets of chromosomes).

The most valuable gene mutations in terms of breeding, which, unlike chromosomal ones, do not lead to sterility of pollen, infertility or inconsistency of mutant lines. Resistance gene mutations are most often associated with either a base change in a certain region of the chromosome DNA, or its loss, addition, or displacement. As a result, there is a change in the genetic code and, accordingly, a change in the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of the cell, which leads to inhibition of the growth, development and reproduction of the pathogen.

The method of artificial mutagenesis in breeding for disease resistance is used in many countries, but it cannot be considered the main method for obtaining resistant forms of plants. This method is most effectively used when working on resistance with crops that propagate vegetatively, since their propagation by seeds entails complex segregation in the offspring due to the high degree of heterozygosity.

It is, apparently, the further improvement of existing crops grown on already developed lands. Hybrids are something that can play a key role in food security. After all, most of the areas suitable for agriculture are already occupied. At the same time, increasing the amount of water, fertilizers and other chemicals used on them is not economically feasible in many places. That is why the improvement of existing crops is of exceptional importance. And hybrids are plants obtained just as a result of such an improvement.

The goal is not only to increase yields, but also to increase the content of protein and other nutrients. For a person, it is also very important the quality of proteins in edible (including people) must receive from food the required amounts of all essential (i.e., those that they are not able to synthesize themselves) amino acids. Eight of the 20 amino acids a person needs come from food. The remaining 12 can be developed by him. However, plants with an improved protein composition as a result of selection inevitably require more nitrogen and other nutrients than the original forms, therefore, they cannot always be grown on infertile lands, where the need for such crops is especially great.

New properties

Quality includes not only yield, composition and quantity of proteins. Varieties are being created that are more resistant to diseases and pests, due to the fruits they contain, more attractive in shape or color of fruits (for example, bright red apples), better able to withstand transportation and storage (for example, tomato hybrids of increased keeping quality), and also have other significant properties for a given culture.

The activities of breeders

Breeders carefully analyze the available genetic diversity. Over the course of several decades, they have developed thousands of improved lines of the most important agricultural plants. As a rule, thousands of hybrids have to be obtained and evaluated in order to select those few that will actually outperform those already widely bred. For example, in the United States from the 1930s to the 1980s. increased by almost eight times, although only a small part of the genetic diversity of this crop was used by breeders. There are more and more new hybrids. This allows more efficient use of cultivated areas.

hybrid corn

The increase in maize productivity was made possible mainly by the use of hybrid seeds. The inbred lines of this culture (hybrid in origin) were used as parental forms. From seeds obtained as a result of crossing between them, very powerful hybrids of corn develop. Crossed lines are sown in alternating rows, and panicles (male inflorescences) are manually cut from the plants of one of them. Therefore, all seeds on these specimens are hybrid. And they have very useful properties for humans. By careful selection of inbred lines, powerful hybrids can be obtained. These are plants that will be suitable for growing in any required area. Since the characteristics of hybrid plants are the same, they are easier to harvest. And the yield of each of them is much higher than that of unimproved specimens. In 1935, corn hybrids accounted for less than 1% of all this crop grown in the United States, and now virtually all. Now, obtaining significantly higher yields of this crop is much less laborious than before.

Successes of international breeding centers

Over the past few decades, a lot of effort has been made to increase the yield of wheat and other grains, especially in warm climate zones. Impressive success has been achieved in international breeding centers located in the subtropics. When new hybrids of wheat, corn and rice bred in them began to be grown in Mexico, India and Pakistan, this led to a sharp increase in agricultural productivity, called the Green Revolution.

Green revolution

Fertilizers and irrigation developed during it have been used in many developing countries. Each crop requires optimal growing conditions to obtain high yields. Fertilization, mechanization and irrigation are essential components of the Green Revolution. Due to the peculiarities of the distribution of credits, only relatively wealthy landowners were able to grow new plant hybrids (cereals). In many regions, the Green Revolution accelerated the concentration of land in the hands of a few of the wealthiest owners. This redistribution of wealth does not necessarily provide jobs or food for the majority of the population in these regions.

Triticale

Traditional breeding methods can sometimes lead to surprising results. For example, a hybrid of wheat (Triticum) and rye (Secale) triticale (scientific name Triticosecale) is gaining importance in many areas and appears to be very promising. It was obtained by doubling the number of chromosomes in a sterile hybrid of wheat and rye in the mid-1950s. J. O'Mara at the University of Iowa with colchicine, a substance that prevents cell plate formation. Triticale combines the high yield of wheat with the ruggedness of rye. The hybrid is relatively resistant to line rust, a fungal disease that is one of the main wheat yields. Further crosses and selection have yielded improved triticale lines for specific areas. In the mid 1980s. this crop, thanks to its high yield, resistance to climatic factors and the excellent straw remaining after harvest, quickly gained popularity in France, the largest grain producer within the EEC. The role of triticale in the human diet is growing rapidly.

Conservation and use of crop genetic diversity

Intensive crossbreeding and selection programs lead to a narrowing of the genetic diversity of cultivated plants for all their traits. For obvious reasons, it is mainly aimed at increasing productivity, and among the very homogeneous offspring of specimens selected strictly on this basis, resistance to diseases is sometimes lost. Within a culture, plants become more and more uniform, as certain of their characters are more pronounced than others; therefore crops as a whole are more vulnerable to pathogens and pests. For example, in 1970, helminthosporiasis, a fungal disease of corn caused by the Helminthosporium maydis species (pictured above), destroyed approximately 15% of the crop in the United States, causing a loss of approximately $1 billion. These losses appear to be due to the emergence of a new race of the fungus, which is very dangerous for some of the main lines of corn that were widely used in the production of hybrid seeds. In many commercially valuable lines of this plant, the cytoplasm was identical, since the same pistil plants are repeatedly used in the production of hybrid corn.

To prevent such damage, it is necessary to grow in isolation and conserve different lines of critical crops that, even if the sum of their traits is not of economic interest, may contain genes useful in ongoing pest and disease control.

Tomato hybrids

Tomato breeders have been remarkably successful in increasing genetic diversity by attracting wild varieties. The creation of a collection of lines of this culture, carried out by Charles Rick and his collaborators at the University of California at Davis, made it possible to effectively deal with many of its serious diseases, in particular those caused by imperfect Fusarium and Verticillum fungi, as well as some viruses. The nutritional value of tomatoes has been significantly increased. In addition, plant hybrids have become more resistant to salinity and other adverse conditions. This was mainly due to the systematic collection, analysis and use of wild tomato lines for breeding.

As you can see, interspecific hybrids are very promising in agriculture. Thanks to them, you can improve the yield and quality of plants. It should be noted that crossbreeding is used not only in agriculture, but also in animal husbandry. As a result of it, for example, a mule appeared (its photo is presented above). This is also a hybrid, a cross between a donkey and a mare.

Oleg asks: “Hello, Elena! Tell me, please, is the crossbreeding by scientists of various types of plants, vegetables and fruits, is it not interference in God’s creation and a sin? In time, it will be possible to cross different animals, for example, a cat and a dog. So there is a possibility that from one simpler living creature a more complex one appeared, and so on until the appearance of a person?

Greetings, Oleg!

Scientists-breeders mainly carry out intraspecific crossings (hybridization) for the appearance of desirable traits (for humans, of course) in animals, plants and microorganisms, thereby achieving the creation of new or improved breeds, varieties, strains.

Within a species, crossing of individuals is relatively easy due to the similarity of their genetic material and anatomical and physiological features. Although this is not always the case, for example, in natural conditions it is impossible to cross a tiny Chihuahua dog and a huge mastiff.

But already on the way of crossing individuals of different species (and even more so different genera) there are molecular genetic barriers that prevent the development of full-fledged organisms. And they are expressed the stronger, the further the crossed species and genera are separated from each other. Due to the significantly different genomes of the parents, unbalanced sets of chromosomes, unfavorable combinations of genes can occur in hybrids, the processes of cell division and the formation of gametes (sex cells) can be disrupted, the death of the zygote (fertilized egg), etc. can occur. Hybrids can be partially or completely sterile (sterile ), with reduced viability up to lethality (although in some cases in the first generation there is a sharp increase in viability - heterosis), developmental anomalies may appear, in particular, reproductive organs, or the so-called chimeric tissues (genetically heterogeneous), etc. Apparently, therefore, the Lord warned His people: "... do not bring your livestock with a different breed; do not sow your field with two kinds [of seeds]" ().

Under natural conditions, cases of interspecific crossing are extremely rare.

There are examples of artificial distant hybridization: mule (horse + donkey), bester (beluga + sterlet), liger (lion + tigress), taigon (tiger + lioness), leopon (lion + female leopard), plum cat (plum + apricot), clementine (orange + tangerine), etc. In some cases, scientists manage to remove the negative consequences of distant hybridization, for example, fertile hybrids of wheat and rye (triticale), radish and cabbage (rafanobrassica) have been obtained.

And now your questions. Is artificial hybridization an interference with God's creation? In a certain sense, yes, if a person creates a version that is different from natural, which can be compared, say, with the use of decorative cosmetics by women to improve their appearance. Is artificial hybridization a sin? Is eating meat a sin? The Lord, out of our hardness of heart, allows the killing of living beings for the sake of food. Probably, also due to our hardness of heart, he also allows selective experimentation in order to improve the consumer properties of products that people need. In the same row - and the creation of drugs (in this case, laboratory animals are used and killed). Sadly, all this is the reality of a society where sin reigns and the “prince of this world” rules.

Do successful crosses put creationism at risk? In no way. Against.

You know that everything multiplies "after its kind." The biblical "kind" is not the biological species of modern taxonomy. After all, a rich variety of species appeared after the Flood due to the variability of the characteristics of terrestrial organisms from Noah's Ark and aquatic inhabitants that survived outside the Ark, while adapting them to new environmental conditions. It is difficult to outline the biblical “kind”, the genetic potential of which is significant and was originally set at creation. It may include modern taxa such as species and genus, but probably not above a (sub)family. It is possible, for example, that large cats from the modern systematic genera of the feline family go back to one original “genus”, and small felines to one or two others. It is clear that the species and genera that emerged from the biblical "genus" include their own, to some extent, depleted and altered (in relation to the original) genetic material. The combination of these not quite complementary parts (in interspecific and intergeneric crossings) encounters obstacles at the molecular-genetic level, which means that it does not allow giving rise to a full-fledged organism, although in rare cases this can happen within the biblical “kind”.

What does it say? The fact that there can be no crosses between “cat and dog” and “up to a person” in principle.

Another moment. Compare 580,000 base pairs, 482 genes in the DNA of a single-celled mycoplasma and 3.2 billion base pairs, about 30,000 genes in human DNA. If you imagine a hypothetical path "from amoeba to man", think about where the new genetic information came from? There is nowhere for it to come naturally. We know that information only comes from an intelligent source. So who is the Author of amoeba and man?

God's blessings!

In Goethe's time, as Goethe himself recalled, in Carlsbad - don't look on the map, now it's Karlovy Vary - on the waters, vacationers liked to identify plants in bouquets according to Linnaeus. These bouquets of mineral waters (hydrocarbonate-sulphate-chloride-sodium - for the attention of those who gather in Karlovy Vary) were delivered daily by a beautiful young gardener who arouses increased interest in pale lonely ladies.

The correct definition of each plant was a matter of honor and success for the gardener, who encouraged innocent botanical hobbies for a modest fee. It is difficult to say why - because of jealousy for the gardener, or for Linnaeus, but the poet severely disagreed with Linnaeus in the principles of plant taxonomy. Linnaeus, as you know, was looking for differences in plants, while Goethe began to look for commonalities, and with this, it must be said, he took the first step towards the genetic systematization of plants.

Women's fascination with botany could be understood: Linnaeus's system was amazingly simple and understandable. This is not Stankov-Taliyev's "Key to higher plants of the European part of the USSR" in more than a thousand pages, leading students to a pre-infarction state.

Linnaeus, who did not like arithmetic for a long time, nevertheless laid it, one might say, at the basis of his system. He subdivided plants into 24 classes, of which 13 were distinguished by the number of stamens. Plants with one stamen in each flower are placed in the first class, with two - in the second, and so on up to the tenth class, which includes plants with ten stamens. Class 11 included plants with 11-20 stamens, 20 or more stamens in a flower indicated belonging to the 12th and 13th classes. These two classes were distinguished by the level of location of the base of the stamens relative to the place of attachment of the pistil. Plants of the 14th and 15th classes have stamens of unequal length. In flowers of classes 15-20, the stamens of plants are fused with each other or with a pistil. In the 21st class, monoecious plants were placed, partly staminate, partly fertile (pistillate) flowers. The 22nd class includes dioecious plants that develop only stamens on some plants, and only fertile flowers on others. Class 23 included plants with a chaotic scatter of male and female flowers (including sometimes joint) on the plant. In the 24th grade, "cryptogamous" plants were combined - all flowerless plants, starting with ferns and ending with algae. The latter are called "mystery" for the reason that botanists did not know how they reproduced. It is now that biologists know their organization and reproduction better than flowering plants.

Linnaeus assigned 20 of the 23 classes to the clasped bisexual flowers. It was they who he considered the rule in the vegetable kingdom, the rest - a curious exception. It seems to be logical, it is more convenient for plants - stamens and pistils are nearby, which means marriage without a hitch; the result of love - the fruit and the seed appear as a result of self-pollination, encrypted by biologists with the Latin word autogamia.

Already after Linnaeus, it became clear that some plants have only seemingly bisexual flowers. Although they have stamens and pistils nearby in flowers, the pollen cells in the anthers are underdeveloped and the whole plant is a eunuch a eunuch - it's disgusting to look at. Other flowers cannot fertilize themselves, but their pollen is capable of producing offspring when pollinated by pistils of foreign plants.

Since it was customary from time immemorial for botanists to call everything by Latin names, they called the totality of the stamens of the flower the androecium, and the totality of the pistils (or simply the pistil) - the gynoecium. But since not a single scientist will ever stop at what has already been achieved, botanists further, depending on the structure of the flowers, divided them into bisexual (containing androecium and gynoecium) and unisexual (containing either androecium or gynoecium). If male and female flowers bloom on the same plant, it is called monoecious (corn), but if on different - dioecious (hemp). In polygamous species on one plant there are bisexual and unisexual flowers (melon, sunflower). However, apparently, in defiance of botanical scientists, nature sometimes exposes to their inquisitive eye all forms of transition from one sexual type of flower and plants to another, up to barren flowers, completely devoid of stamens and with underdeveloped pistils.

The weed plant woodlice, or toptun, which is extremely annoying to gardeners, has ten stamens in two five-membered whorls, of which usually 5 inner ones, with some addition of those from the outer whorl, are wrinkled and devoid of pollen. The flower heads of the blackhead (Poterium polygamum) contain, in addition to purely fertile and purely staminate flowers, also real bisexual flowers. They represent all examples of the transition from true bisexuals to flowers of a purely maternal type. By the way, this botanical genus is exceptional among the Rosaceae for its tendency to wind pollination.

The degree of isolation among the falsely bisexual fertile and staminate flowers is also unusually varied. Thistle, asparagus, persimmon, grapes, some scabioses, saxifrage, valerian have flowers that are bisexual at first glance. The pistils are well developed in them, and stamens are also visible, in the anthers of which pollen may or may not be present. In the latter case, these are false bisexual flowers. What to do, and in nature "false Dmitry" are found. The same can be said about some of the flowers in the racemes of horse chestnuts and some species of sorrel, as well as in the flowers in the center of the coltsfoot baskets and marigolds, which look like real bisexual flowers, but whose ovaries do not produce germinating seeds, since the stigma unable to pass pollen tubes through itself.

In the brushes of sycamore (one of the types of maple), one can notice all possible transitions from falsely bisexual staminate flowers with well-developed large ovaries to those in which the pistils are underdeveloped or completely absent. Transitions from true bisexual flowers to barren flowers can be found in several species of steppe hyacinth.

Three-house species are also known: in them, some plants bear only male, others only female, and still others have bisexual flowers (smolevka). Of the curiosities of plants, one can note the change of sex with age or in individual years. Heart-shaped grapes, belonging in their homeland to typically dioecious, are represented in the Vienna Botanical Garden by bushes with staminate flowers. But in some years, vine bushes confuse guides, because they form, in addition to stamens, real bisexual flowers.

In many plants, self-fertilization is prevented by the non-simultaneous maturation of stamens and pistils in a flower - dichogamy (sunflower, raspberry, pear, apple tree, plum), in which proterandry is distinguished, when the stamens dust before the pistils ripen, and protogyny, when the pistils ripen before the stamens.

Compositae, labiales, mallows, cloves, and legumes are mainly proterandric; proterogynistic rushes and oysters, kirkazon and daphnia, honeysuckle, globularia, solanaceous, rosaceous and cruciferous. All monoecious plants are proterogynistic: sedges, cattails, burrweeds, aroids with monoecious flowers, corn, stinging nettle, urut, blackhead, cocklebur, mad cucumber, euphorbia plants, alder, birch, walnut, plane tree, elm, oak, hazel, beech . In the trees and shrubs named here, anthers begin to dust with a delay of 2-3 days. In alpine green alder, this difference is 4-5 days, and in small cattail - even nine.

For the most part, dioecious plants are proteogynistic. In large willow thickets along the banks of our rivers not etched with chemistry, some species are still represented by numerous shrubs. Some of them bear staminate flowers, the other - pistillate. They are practically in the same conditions, but, despite the same external conditions in the same area, bushes with pistil flowers always deftly outstrip their “men” with stamen flowers in flowering. In whitethal, purple willow, basket willow and willow, the stigmas in their maturation are 2-3 days ahead of the opening of stamen flowers. Alpine willows are the same - make sure if you happen to visit the Alps. But here the time difference is limited to only one day, from which it is legitimate to conclude that our willows are the most proterogynous willows in the world.

In cannabis plants growing nearby, at the beginning of flowering, stigmas can be seen, ready for the perception of pollen, although not a single staminate flower has yet opened - they will open only after 4-5 days. At the blueberry, or potion chicken, growing in deciduous forests and shrubs, maternal and paternal individuals are located nearby. However, their pistillate flowers open two days before the staminate ones. Same with hops and many other dioecious plants.

In a few plants, self-fertilization is difficult due to the arrangement of stamens and pistils, in which it is difficult for pollen to get on the stigma of the pistil of its flower. For example, with heterostyly, some individuals have flowers with long pistils and short stamens, while others have the opposite. Some gentian (for example, watch, or shamrock), buckwheat, various types of sloth, numerous primroses (for example, breakwort, turcha, primrose, or primrose), as well as many borage (forget-me-nots, lungwort, etc.) .

The watch has very graceful shaggy white-pink flowers-stars, collected with a brush on a leafless stem. Some flowers have a low column and an anther fixed above it, others, on the contrary, have high columns and anthers fixed under them. The stigmas of the plant mature before the stamens. Insects visiting the flowers of the watch touch either the pistils or the stamens with the same part of their body, carrying out strictly cross-pollination. However, in a long bad weather, the flower is closed and forced to self-fertilize.

Primula, better known to children as rams, is one of the first spring flowers to bloom. Hence the Latin name primus - first. The plant is pollinated only by bumblebees and butterflies. Due to the heterocolumnity, the pistils of some flowers can be pollinated by pollen only from other flowers. If a bumblebee lands on a flower with a low pistil, it touches the high stamens with its head. Flying to a flower with a tall pistil, it touches the stigma with its head and cross-pollinates.

The phenomenon of heterocolumnarity was first discovered on the flowers of marsh turcha, and then on other plants. Turchi's superiority in this regard seems even incredible, given that the entire plant is submerged in water, and only in July do flowers appear above the water. Another remarkable thing about turchi is that it has no roots, and the cells of the skin of the leaves perform the suction functions in it.

In buckwheat, according to the sworn assurance of geneticists, long columnarity is controlled by the recessive s allele, and short columnarity by the dominant S allele (we remind you that an allele is one of the forms of the state of the same gene). Since pollination does not occur within one type of flower, an equal ratio of plants with Ss and ss genotypes is maintained in populations all the time; this can be seen from the Punnett lattice, known from the school biology course:

that is, a 1:1 split, as in humans, into boys (AT) and girls (XX) in the offspring.

According to the structure of the flower, buckwheat is adapted to cross-pollination mainly by insects (flies, bumblebees and especially bees), which are attracted by nectar, and only partly by the wind. Under normal (legitimate) pollination, when the pollen of short stamens falls on the stigmas of short styles and, accordingly, the pollen of long stamens - on the stigmas of long styles, the largest number of seeds is set.

Plakun-grass (Lythrum salicaria) is one of our most interesting plants. The fact is that the flowers of plakun-grass have pistils of three different sizes and 12 stamens, equally spaced in two circles. In some flowers, the pistil is above both circles of stamens, in others it is between them, and in others it is below both circles. Consequently, the stamens are located at different heights in the same way as the pistils, which allows for cross-pollination. An insect, arriving for nectar, smears itself with pollen and gives it to the stigma of the pistil, the length of which corresponds to the stamen from which the pollen was removed. Fertilization occurs normally when pollen is transferred from a stamen that is the same length as the pistil. Pollen grains from stamens of three different heights differ from each other in size and partly in color, and, accordingly, the length of the papillae on the stigmas of three different heights is also different, because the stigmas must catch different pollen. The process of pollination was first studied in detail by Charles Darwin.

In some plants, the stamens and pistils are arranged in strict order, being substituted for insects to "unload" pollen or "load" the stigma. In our common rue, found on the slopes and hills in the forests of the Southern Crimea, the flower contains ten anthers supported by straight, star-shaped threads. First, one thread rises, arranging the anther supported by it in the middle of the flower along a line leading to nectar, which is released in a fleshy ring at the base of the pistil. It maintains this position for about a day, then returns to its previous position. While the first stamen folds back, another rises - and everything repeats. This continues until all ten anthers, one after the other, stand in the middle of the flower. When, finally, the tenth stamen also folds back, a stigma appears in the center of the flower, which at that time became susceptible to pollination.

In the bisexual flowers of the stinging nettle, the stigma develops even before the flower blooms and is the first to emerge from the greenish bud of the flower. Anthers on bent legs, as if on springs, are covered with interlocking small greenish integumentaries. But before they allow the anthers to rise from their "knees", straighten up and disperse their pollen in the form of a cloud in the air, the stigma withers and the style separates with the stigma from the ovary. So by the time the pollen is released from the anthers, the ovary ends with a point - the dried base of the fallen column.

Usually, in plants, all this happens differently: first, anthers and stamens fall in the flower, and only after that the stigma acquires the ability to perceive pollen. In balsam flowers, the anthers are fused together and form something like a cap over the stigma. After the flower has opened and become accessible to incoming insects, the anthers immediately crack, and a cap formed by the opened anthers appears before us. But now the filaments of the stamens are separated, and the cap falls out of the flower. Only now the stigmas are showing, already quite ripe. The same can be observed in large-flowered crails and geraniums.

In the bisexual flowers of tradescantia, bred at home and misunderstood called "women's gossip", the anthers open a little earlier than the stigmas become susceptible to pollen. But as soon as the stigma is ready for pollination, the stamens curl up into a spiral, and soon after this, the anthers fade, covering the anthers on the curled threads. The style stands out, and the stigmas are susceptible to pollen for the whole next day. These flowers are visited by insects with short proboscises to feast on the juice of crumpled bracts that hide the stamens, while they touch the stigmas and pollinate them with pollen brought from other flowers. Pollination by the pollen of their anthers is no longer possible.

The dichogamy of botany, relying in its research only on morphological and ecological differences, without taking into account the content of genomes, owe to the abundance of sedge species, endlessly rediscovered, and even rediscovered. Moreover, the so-called "species" of sedges easily interbreed with each other, giving out many intermediate forms, readily accepted as new "species" (the authors of the species are attracted by the opportunity to perpetuate their name in Latin transcription). Imperfect (incomplete) dichogamy in botanical genera with monoecious flowers provides, for example, in sedges, at first the so-called interspecific, and later intraspecific crossing. This is understandable, since the stigma of the very first flowering plant of the proterogynous species can only be pollinated by pollen from other, even earlier flowering "species".

Lysenko believed that "dialectical materialism, developed and raised to a new height by the works of Comrade Stalin, for Soviet biologists, for the Michurinists is the most valuable, most powerful theoretical weapon in solving deep questions of biology, including the question of the origin of some species from others" . That is why he gave a super-dialectical definition of a species at this new height: “A species is a special, qualitatively defined state of living forms of matter. An essential feature of plant, animal, and microorganism species is certain intraspecific relationships between individuals. That's it.

Not all botanists are willing to see that in the dialectical unity of form and content, content is decisive. The content of a species is the unity of the genetic structure of the populations that make it up. Outwardly, it manifests itself in phenotypic similarity, free interbreeding, and especially in the ability to produce fertile offspring when crossed. Hereditary information is what qualitatively determines the species and makes up its content. It is difficult to say whether life arose simultaneously with heredity (I suspect that it did), but one thing is certain: with the advent of discrete heredity, species appeared on the globe.

Taking into account the formulations known to science, the definition of a species can be as follows: species - a complex and mobile community of organisms, qualitatively isolated at a given stage of the evolutionary process, characterized by unity of origin, common genetic constitution, hereditary stability and fertility of offspring. Most of the selected "species" of sedges and willows do not correspond to this definition.

When distinguishing “good”, or real, species by interbreeding and the formation of fertile offspring, one should not forget about the phenomenon of self-incompatibility - the impossibility of self-fertilization in some hermaphrodite organisms or cross-fertilization between individuals of a species with the same genetic factors of incompatibility. The main function of self-incompatibility systems is to prevent self-fertilization and promote crossbreeding between unrelated individuals.

Distinguish gametophyte, sporophyte and heteromorphic self-incompatibility. Gametophyte self-incompatibility is the most common (cereals, beets, alfalfa, fruits, potatoes, etc.). This system is characterized by independent action in pollen and column of two alleles of the S. incompatibility locus present in each individual. For example, pollen from a plant with the genotype S 1 S 2 behaves like S 1 or S 2, depending on which allele the pollen grain contains. None of the alleles shows dominance or any other form of interallelic interaction. The same complete independence of action is observed in the column.

The reaction of incompatibility is manifested in the pistil style: the growth of pollen tubes carrying a given allele stops in columns containing an identical allele. If all alleles involved in hybridization are different, for example S 1 S 2 XS 3 S 4, then all pollen tubes are compatible, the ovary is normal, and 4 cross-compatible genotypes are formed in the offspring. In the vast majority of species studied, gametophytic incompatibility is controlled by one or two loci.

Sporophyte incompatibility was first described in guayule. In sporophyte self-incompatibility, the behavior of each pollen grain depends on the style genotype. Thus, if S 1 dominates S 2 , all the pollen of the S 1 S 2 plant will react as S 1 and will be able to penetrate the columns carrying the S 2 allele, regardless of the genotype of the pollen tube - S 1 or S 2 .

Heteromorphic incompatibility arises on the basis of heterostyly, which we have already described earlier.

One of the plant's adaptations for cross-fertilization is male sterility. In recent decades, male sterility in cultivated plants has been of great interest to breeders and seed growers, as it allows large-scale production of heterotic hybrids of the first generation, which give yield increases of up to 40 percent compared to conventional varieties, are distinguished by early and friendly ripening, high uniformity and resistance to adverse environmental factors.

To date, cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and gene male sterility (GMS), controlled by the genes of the cell nucleus, have been described. Cytoplasmic male sterility in plants is due to the interaction of the sterile cytoplasm (S) with 1-3 pairs of recessive nuclear genes (rf). In the presence of dominant nuclear genes (RF), pollen fertility is restored. CMS is widely used to obtain heterotic hybrids on an industrial scale in corn, sorghum, sugar beets, onions, and carrots. Usually,

for the use of CMS in seed production of first generation hybrids (they are designated F 1), fertile sterility fixers with the Nrfrf genotype (N is normal cytoplasm), their sterile analogues - Srfrf and fertility restorers - RfRf are used.

Genetic male sterility is used to obtain heterotic seeds in tomatoes, peppers, and barley. In the production of hybrid seeds based on a single recessive HMS gene, splitting in Fi occurs according to Mendel in the ratio of 3 fertile: 1 sterile plant, since, unlike CMS, male sterility is transmitted through both female and male gametes.

Crossing is known to be widely used in plant breeding and seed production. The possibility of artificial production of hybrids was first suggested by the German scientist R. Camerarius in 1694, and, as often happens, no one believed him. Only in 1760, the German botanist and honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Josef Kölreuter received a hybrid of Peruvian panicled tobacco with shag. From this year, scientists begin conscious hybridization.

Depending on the degree of kinship of the crossed forms, intraspecific and distant - interspecific and intergeneric hybridization are distinguished. If two parental forms are involved in the crossing, they speak of simple, or paired, hybridization, if more than two, of complex. There are direct (A × B) and reverse (B × A) crosses, which are generally called reciprocal. Crossing hybrids with one of the parents, for example (A × B) × A or (A × B) × B, is called backcross, or backcross.

Symbols are used to designate hybrids and parental forms: P - parental form; F 1 - hybrid of the first generation; F 2 - second, etc.; B 1, or BC 1, is the first generation of backcross; In 2, or BC 2 - the second, etc. The maternal form is indicated by the icon ♀, the paternal - ♂. However, most often they do without the latter, placing the maternal form in the first place in the records of the crossing combination, and the paternal form in the second place.

The method and technique of crossing depends on the biology of flowering and pollination, fertilization, the structure of flowers (bisexual, dioecious), the location of the latter on the plant and in the inflorescence, the method of pollination, the duration of the viability of the pistil and pollen, and the crossing conditions.

Breeders use forced, limited-free and free crossing, for which the castration of plants is often necessary. Castration is the removal of immature anthers or their damage by cutting, thermal sterilization (hot air or water) or chemical castration - the use of specially selected gametocides.

In forced crossing, castrated and isolated mother plants are pollinated with the pollen of the paternal plant. With free crossing, parental forms are sown in alternating rows. Castrated, male-sterile or biologically female mother plants are pollinated by pollen from nearby paternal plants.

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CENTAURS IN THE PLANT WORLD

"Centaurs" in the world of plants. Achievements of Russian, European and American scientists. How the plum and everyone's favorite strawberries appeared. Creation of new varieties of wheat. The main achievement of Russian scientists is cabbage radish.

The list of plant "centaurs" is not at all limited to cabbage-radish hybrids. So, as a result of crossing two grain crops - rye and wheat - scientists received a number of forms, united by the common name triticale. Triticale has a good yield, winter hardiness and is resistant to many wheat diseases. Thanks to the hybridization shenitsy and malicious field weed - wheatgrass - breeders received valuable plant varieties - wheat-couch grass hybrids that are resistant to lodging and have high yields. Another well-known Russian breeder - I.V. Michurin - crossed the Pennsylvania cherry (very frost-resistant, unlike the cherry we are used to) with bird cherry and synthesized a new plant, which he called cerapadus. Only much later it was discovered that cerapadus spontaneously arise in the Pamirs, but in a slightly different way.

Oleg asks: “Hello, Elena! Tell me, please, is the crossbreeding by scientists of various types of plants, vegetables and fruits, is it not interference in God’s creation and a sin? In time, it will be possible to cross different animals, for example, a cat and a dog. So there is a possibility that from one simpler living creature a more complex one appeared, and so on until the appearance of a person?

Greetings, Oleg!

Scientists-breeders mainly carry out intraspecific crossings (hybridization) for the appearance of desirable traits (for humans, of course) in animals, plants and microorganisms, thereby achieving the creation of new or improved breeds, varieties, strains.

Within a species, crossing of individuals is relatively easy due to the similarity of their genetic material and anatomical and physiological features. Although this is not always the case, for example, in natural conditions it is impossible to cross a tiny Chihuahua dog and a huge mastiff.

But already on the way of crossing individuals of different species (and even more so different genera) there are molecular genetic barriers that prevent the development of full-fledged organisms. And they are expressed the stronger, the further the crossed species and genera are separated from each other. Due to the significantly different genomes of the parents, unbalanced sets of chromosomes, unfavorable combinations of genes can occur in hybrids, the processes of cell division and the formation of gametes (sex cells) can be disrupted, the death of the zygote (fertilized egg), etc. can occur. Hybrids can be partially or completely sterile (sterile ), with reduced viability up to lethality (although in some cases in the first generation there is a sharp increase in viability - heterosis), developmental anomalies may appear, in particular, reproductive organs, or the so-called chimeric tissues (genetically heterogeneous), etc. Apparently, therefore, the Lord warned His people: "... do not bring your livestock with a different breed; do not sow your field with two kinds [of seeds]" ().

Under natural conditions, cases of interspecific crossing are extremely rare.

There are examples of artificial distant hybridization: mule (horse + donkey), bester (beluga + sterlet), liger (lion + tigress), taigon (tiger + lioness), leopon (lion + female leopard), plum cat (plum + apricot), clementine (orange + tangerine), etc. In some cases, scientists manage to remove the negative consequences of distant hybridization, for example, fertile hybrids of wheat and rye (triticale), radish and cabbage (rafanobrassica) have been obtained.

And now your questions. Is artificial hybridization an interference with God's creation? In a certain sense, yes, if a person creates a version that is different from natural, which can be compared, say, with the use of decorative cosmetics by women to improve their appearance. Is artificial hybridization a sin? Is eating meat a sin? The Lord, out of our hardness of heart, allows the killing of living beings for the sake of food. Probably, also due to our hardness of heart, he also allows selective experimentation in order to improve the consumer properties of products that people need. In the same row - and the creation of drugs (in this case, laboratory animals are used and killed). Sadly, all this is the reality of a society where sin reigns and the “prince of this world” rules.

Do successful crosses put creationism at risk? In no way. Against.

You know that everything multiplies "after its kind." The biblical "kind" is not the biological species of modern taxonomy. After all, a rich variety of species appeared after the Flood due to the variability of the characteristics of terrestrial organisms from Noah's Ark and aquatic inhabitants that survived outside the Ark, while adapting them to new environmental conditions. It is difficult to outline the biblical “kind”, the genetic potential of which is significant and was originally set at creation. It may include modern taxa such as species and genus, but probably not above a (sub)family. It is possible, for example, that large cats from the modern systematic genera of the feline family go back to one original “genus”, and small felines to one or two others. It is clear that the species and genera that emerged from the biblical "genus" include their own, to some extent, depleted and altered (in relation to the original) genetic material. The combination of these not quite complementary parts (in interspecific and intergeneric crossings) encounters obstacles at the molecular-genetic level, which means that it does not allow giving rise to a full-fledged organism, although in rare cases this can happen within the biblical “kind”.

What does it say? The fact that there can be no crosses between “cat and dog” and “up to a person” in principle.

Another moment. Compare 580,000 base pairs, 482 genes in the DNA of a single-celled mycoplasma and 3.2 billion base pairs, about 30,000 genes in human DNA. If you imagine a hypothetical path "from amoeba to man", think about where the new genetic information came from? There is nowhere for it to come naturally. We know that information only comes from an intelligent source. So who is the Author of amoeba and man?

God's blessings!

Read more on the topic "Creation":

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It is known that the vast majority of plants and animals reproduce sexually. Their seed offspring arises only as a result of fertilization - the fusion of male and female germ cells, giving rise to new organisms.
In contrast to the vegetative method of reproduction (by tubers, cuttings, buds, etc.), in which growing organisms continue their development from the stage to which the development of the tissue of the mother bush taken to obtain them has reached, during sexual reproduction, a fertilized egg - the zygote gives the beginning of a new plant, starting its development anew.
The process of fertilization is of great biological significance, because thanks to it, developing new organisms acquire dual heredity - maternal and paternal, and as a result, greater vitality, which is manifested in their better adaptability to various environmental conditions.
According to Lysenko, the biological role of the fertilization process lies in the fact that by combining female and male germ cells that differ to a certain extent in their hereditary properties into one cell and merging their two nuclei into one nucleus, a contradictory nature of the living body is created, which is the cause of self-development, self-motion, t i.e. the life process with its inherent metabolism.
Artificial crossing of various varieties of plants and animal breeds is widely used in breeding practice.
The decisive moments in the development of new highly productive varieties of plants and animal breeds from the standpoint of materialistic Michurin biology is a meaningful and skillful selection of initial parental pairs for crossing and further control of the emerging nature of the hybrid offspring by regulating living conditions.

Through many years of persistent practical work, which has a deeply substantiated foundation, I. V. Michurin consistently, step by step, built his theory of sexual hybridization. This theory refutes the main provisions of the supporters of formal genetic science, who assert the independence of the heredity of organisms from the conditions of their life and propagate the "notorious pea laws of Mendel", the application of which in the selection of perennial crops, as Ivan Vladimirovich wrote, is not even worth dreaming of. He sharply condemned those who worked according to the principle: "Rash, mix, chat, maybe something else will come out." In contrast, I. V. Michurin's motto reads: "We cannot wait for favors from nature: it is our task to take them from her."
Objecting to the views on heredity expressed by supporters of formal genetic "science", he repeatedly argued that with repeated crossing of the same initial parental pairs in their successive offspring, the same number of hybrids would never be obtained, in which strictly defined characters would always dominate. father or mother according to the Mendelian law 3:1. The resulting plants in all cases of crossing the same parental pairs are not identical in their morphological and biological characteristics, because the inheritance of the characteristics of the parents depends both on the selection of the crossed varieties, and on many other reasons.
The correct selection of parental pairs is impossible without knowledge of the biological patterns of inheritance by hybrid offspring of the signs and properties of parents and the presence of deep relationships between the emerging nature of plant organisms and the conditions for their upbringing, established by I. V. Michurin, T. D. Lysenko and their followers.
1. In order to obtain a new variety with the desired qualities, it is necessary first of all to select for crossing such plants that have economically valuable traits that correspond to the selection task.
IV: Michurin has repeatedly emphasized the idea that modern breeders, as a rule, do not need to repeat the path that has been traveled before them; due to the presence of heredity in organisms, they must use the results of the work of many generations of their predecessors.
The same idea was carried out in his writings by Luther Burbank. He figuratively compared the choice of plants for crossing with the work of an architect. Just as an architect selects a building material that corresponds to the ideological concept of the future building, so the breeder outlines for crossing plant forms that have the characteristics that he wants to see in the future variety. At the same time, the breeder has at his disposal an incomparably richer and more diverse material that he can bring to work for the implementation of his plan than the amount of minerals or types of wood that the architect knows.
When breeding new varieties, as T. D. Lysenko points out, it is very important to select the initial forms according to the principle that they have the least number of negative qualities that could limit the development of the best traits and properties of the parents in the offspring under given specific conditions.
2. IV Michurin attached great importance to the varietal and individual history of maternal and paternal plants, since knowledge of it makes it possible to foresee the possible nature of the inheritance of the characteristics of parental forms by hybrid offspring.
“The most energetic ability to transfer their properties,” Ivan Vladimirovich pointed out, “is possessed, firstly, by all plants of pure species growing in the wild, and secondly, all old cultivars of plants are distinguished by greater energy, and the weakest in this respect need count recently bred young varieties of fruit trees and berry bushes" *.

* I. V. Michurin, Selected Works, 1948, p. 69.

The dominance of the traits of wild plants when they are crossed with cultivated ones is due to the presence of a much more conservative heredity in them than in the cultural forms formed later in the process of human activity.
Even C. Darwin noted that in plants and animals distributed in natural conditions, such sharp and sudden changes are not observed, which are known in domesticated animals and cultivated plants. It must be assumed that the very fact of cultivation, that is, the transfer of plants from natural conditions to new - artificial ones, and their cultivation for many generations under the influence of certain methods of agricultural technology and phytotechnics contributes to the formation of more plastic heredity in them and their more active reaction to change environmental conditions than wild forms.
3. In order to obtain hybrid offspring with plastic heredity, which is most capable of succumbing to directed education and giving the richest material for subsequent selection in terms of diversity, I. V. Michurin recommended the use of geographically and genetically distant crossbreeding.
As a rule, with distant (interspecific or intergeneric) hybridization, the resulting hybrid offspring adapt relatively easily to the living conditions that are provided to it.
On the basis of extensive practical material, I. V. Michurin proved the possibility of crossing distantly related plant forms and widely used distant hybridization in his practical work when breeding well-known varieties: apple trees - Bellefleur-Chinese, Kandil-Chinese (hybrids between domestic and Chinese apple trees), Bellefleur red, Belfleur record (hybrids between domestic apple tree and Nedzvetsky apple tree), Taezhnoye (hybrid between Kandil-Chinese and Siberian apple tree); pears - Bere winter Michurina, Tolstobezhka, Rakovka (hybrids between ordinary - cultivated pear and Ussuri); cherries - Beauty of the North, Bastard cherries (hybrids of cherries with cherries); new plants - cerapadus (hybrids of steppe cherry with Japanese bird cherry); plums - Transparent yellow (hybrid of plums with apricot), Turnklod sloe, Turn sweet (plum hybrids with wild thorns); grapes - Russian Concord, Metallic, Buytur (hybrids between American and Amur species), Korinka Michurina (hybrid between Amur and cultivated grapes). Its varieties are also known - hybrids of mountain ash with medlar, mountain ash with hawthorn, raspberries with blackberries, etc.
The method of remote hybridization has found wide application in the work of Soviet breeders, since it opens up great possibilities for obtaining new forms of useful plants.
Plants distant by kinship can also be distant by geographical origin and by the environmental conditions in which each of them was formed.
Crossing geographically distant plants and raising their hybrid offspring is desirable to carry out in new natural conditions, alien to both maternal and paternal parents. In this case, according to Michurin's teaching, those conditions that are necessary for a strong manifestation in the offspring of the signs of the nearest ancestors are, as it were, excluded. A classic example of the practical use of this provision is the production by I. V. Michurin in the conditions of the Tambov region of a new high-quality winter pear variety Bere winter Michurina.
For a long time he failed to obtain a new variety of pear with fruits of good taste, suitable for long-term winter storage. To this end, he carried out numerous crossings of high-quality Western European winter pear varieties (Bere Dil, Bere Clerzho, Bere Ligelya, Saint-Germain) with local varieties (Tonkovetka, Tsarskaya, Bessemyanka). However, the grown seedlings did not have the desired property due to the dominance of early fruit ripening in the offspring, which is characteristic of local pear varieties. Only by crossing the Italian pear variety Bere Royale with a young, first flowering seedling of the Ussuri pear (the birthplace of this type of pear is the Far East), he received hybrids with fruits of summer, autumn and winter ripening. One of them turned out to be especially valuable, as it inherited the best properties of both parents - the frost resistance inherent in the Ussuri pear, and the size of the fruits, their excellent dessert taste, as well as the ability to keep fresh for a long time, inherent in the Bere royal variety.
4. On the basis of many years of experiments and observations, I. V. Michurin discovered another important pattern: in the process of crossing varieties that are equivalent in terms of heredity conservatism, the maternal organism, being a natural mentor, as a rule, more fully transmits its characteristics and properties to offspring than the paternal .
Guided by this regularity, Soviet breeders, when carrying out crossings in the role of the maternal parent, often select the plant whose economically valuable traits and properties it is desirable to see in the offspring. If, however, it becomes necessary to weaken the individual force of the hereditary transmission of the maternal parent, then it is necessary to select as the mother a young, flowering seedling for the first time, with heredity already shaken by preliminary hybridization.
5. Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin - the first breeder who used a mixture of pollen of various varieties for crossing. True, he used the pollen mixture method, mainly in order to overcome non-crossing in the hybridization of plants distant in a related relationship, but his followers proved the expediency of using a mixture of pollen from a number of varieties in ordinary crosses.
Darwin also noted that the crossing of individuals exposed to various conditions throughout the life of previous generations has a beneficial effect on the offspring, since in this case their germ cells are differentiated to one degree or another. With self-pollination of flowers, such differentiation of sexual elements is not observed, therefore its effect on offspring is unfavorable.
This observation served as the basis for another important conclusion of Charles Darwin about the presence of mandatory selectivity of the sexual elements of plants in natural conditions. I. V. Michurin and T. D. Lysenko developed the Darwinian position on the presence of selective fertilization of plants and proved that the inheritance of parental traits by offspring during artificial hybridization is highly dependent on the selective nature of the fertilization process, and this dependence has a dual character.
Not every pollen grain biologically corresponds to a certain egg, therefore, the more pollen grains of different varieties are applied during pollination on the stigma of a castrated flower, the more opportunity is given to the mother plant to choose the most acceptable of them. Numerous experiments of the Michurinists proved that if there is a large selection of pollen by flowers, fertilization occurs more actively, the set seeds turn out to be much more viable and richer in nutrients, and the plants grown from them are more productive.
In addition, during pollination with a mixture of pollen, as a result of the interaction of pollen grains of different varieties, a qualitatively new physiological environment is created, more favorable than during conventional pollination.
IV Michurin drew the attention of breeders to the other side of this process. By far not always with artificial hybridization one should expect to obtain relatively more viable offspring. After all, often biologically non-corresponding plants are involved as parents, the crossing of which is forced. For example, with distant hybridization, plants are sometimes obtained that are not capable of building even the most vital organs. Nevertheless, T. D. Lysenko emphasizes that the selective ability of plants must be used to obtain drastic changes in heredity through forced crossing with those individuals whose pollen would not be chosen by the mother organism under natural conditions.
In this area, the Michurin agrobiological science puts forward new, as yet unresolved problems of great theoretical importance.
For practical breeding work, the pollen mixture for crossing is selected according to the same principles that were noted earlier, i.e., the breeding task, the economically valuable qualities of the parent varieties (including several paternal varieties), their biological characteristics and history of origin are taken into account.
6. It is not always possible for a breeder to obtain a hybrid offspring with the desired traits by a single crossing of parental pairs preselected, taking into account the indicated patterns of heredity dominance, the breeder. In order to achieve its goal, it is sometimes useful to resort to recrossing the best hybrid plants obtained with one of the parents or with some other variety that has the desired qualities.
Attaching exceptional importance to the re-crossing of the first hybrid generation of fruit crops obtained in central Russia with southern varieties, I. V. Michurin persistently pointed out to breeders: crossing hybrids with the best cultivated (and foreign) varieties ... Here, in most cases, we will get a significant overall improvement both from the influence of the variety introduced into the crossing with new good properties, and from the easier susceptibility of the hybrid at its young age and, moreover, still rooted " *.

* I. V. Michurin, Soch., vol. 1, 1948, pp. 496-498.

At the same time, he warned against using seedlings of the second or even third generation from natural pollination in harsh climatic conditions, because the new forms obtained in this way deviate mainly for the worse due to the repeated negative influence of local environmental factors on the dominance of parental traits.
The patterns of plant heredity dominance established by I. V. Michurin, T. D. Lysenko and their students also apply to the culture of vines.
Many years of research conducted by the department of selection and variety study of the Ukrainian Research Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking named after. Tairov (P.K. Ayvazyan) found that in the first and second seed offspring of sexual hybrids, a rather complex pattern of inheritance of parental traits is observed. In some seedlings, the traits of one parent may predominate, in others - of the other, in others - intermediate inheritance of traits may occur, and, finally, cases are known when completely new traits and properties appear in hybrid offspring that were completely absent in the original parental pairs.
As a rule, wild-growing forms of pure species turn out to be the most constant in terms of heredity: Vitis Riparia, Vitis Rupestris, Vitis Labruska, Vitis Amurenzis, etc. rootstock varieties and grown under normal agrotechnical conditions, predominantly inherit the characteristics of wild parents. At the same time, most of the plants that morphologically deviated towards wild forms inherit from mother plants (European varieties) resistance to mildew and low frost resistance, and from paternal varieties (wild forms) - poor crop quality. Seedlings approaching cultivars in terms of morphological features are inferior in yield quality to the parent cultivar.
A small number of interspecific hybrids with practical resistance to mildew and frost, in terms of their morphological characteristics (shoots and leaves), as well as the quantity and quality of the crop, are close to wild species. Such seedlings are of interest for repeated and vegetative hybridization.
Studies have also shown that in interspecific hybridization, it is best to take old native grape varieties with good crop quality as mother plants. Such varieties, formed under local conditions and having a more stable heredity, more easily transfer their characteristics and properties to hybrid offspring than introduced ones.
In hybrid progeny obtained from repeated crossings of interspecific hybrids with high-quality varieties, as expected, a significant proportion of seedlings are wild forms. In this case, too, a large number of seedlings, deviating in their characteristics from cultivated plants, can be explained by the fact that wild varieties took part in the origin of one of the parents, which, due to the prescription of their existence, are distinguished by their exceptional ability to preserve their hereditary properties.
Within the same hybrid combination, under the same environmental conditions, the variety more fully transmits its characteristics and properties to the offspring (yield, growth force of bushes, size of clusters and berries, color of berries and juice, crop quality, plant resistance to adverse conditions, etc.) in the event that it is taken as a mother plant. Providing the hybrid embryo at its youngest age, starting from the moment the zygote is formed, with the necessary nutrients, the maternal organism as a mentor accordingly influences the formation of the heredity of the offspring.
The correct selection of initial parent varieties for crossing is only the first stage of breeding work, ending with the production of hybrid seeds. The subsequent process of formation of the heredity of seedlings is a very complex biological phenomenon, which takes place under the influence of environmental conditions and is often accompanied by the manifestation of a number of profound changes in them.