Hybrids withouthybridization-can it revolutionize horticulture?

The often-cited idiom“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”refers to the occasional striking similarity in appearance or behavior between a human parent and child.However,in heterozygous organisms—be it human or apple—strong similarity in multiple traits across generations tends to be the exception.Rather,the phenomenon of genetic segregation ensures that off-spring show variation.While this can be advantageous in nature,it poses numerous problems for horticulture and plant agriculture in general,as the perpetual need to reproduce high-performing hybrids through crossing of parental genotypes,as well as the clonal vegetative propagation of elite hybrid cultivars,involves expensive and time consuming procedures.A recent study by Khanday and colleagues,published 12 December in the journal Nature 1,combined the characterization of a mechanism that triggers embryogenesis in the absence of fertilization。