What is molecular biology and what makes it different from classical approaches to plant breeding?
Classical breeding or hybridization has been used since the beginnings of agriculture to improve upon natural selection through controlled pollination of selected parent plants to produce offspring with desired characteristics. Virtually every fruit and vegetable available is a product of this type of genetic manipulation. For example, an ancient ancestor of modern-day corn, Tripsacum, does not resemble a modern corn hybrid. It also isn’t as productive or nutritious as modern hybrids. If Tripsacum were used for feed stock for animals, hundreds to thousands more plants and acres would be needed to achieve the same yields. Another example of human intervention is the new vegetable – broccoflower. It originated through a cross between broccoli and cauliflower, after years of patient selection by plant breeders. The broccoflower is an example of a wide-species cross that couldn’t happen in nature. The fertilized egg from the broccoli/cauliflower cross could not survive. First, it had to be
