Plant Genetics General

Question 1

What are the methods of gene flow in plants?

Answer 1

• Pollen
• Seeds
• Vegetative growth.

Question 2

Define apomixis.

Answer 2

Production of seed identical to mother.

Question 3

Define hybrid vigour.

Answer 3

The superior performance of an F1 from inbred parents.

Question 4

What are the differences between plants and animals?

Answer 4

• Plants cannot move.
• Gene flow is short and sex often restricted to neighbours
• Inbreeding and polyploidy is common
• Gametophyte generation is very important (in simple plants like mosses and liverworts it is the dominant generation).
• Fewer deleterious recessive genes
• Totipotency
• Introns generally smaller in plants
• Mitochondria, while similar, are probably of a different origin (a different symbiotic relationship) to animals.