29.03.2011 | permalink
Most crop varieties are hybrids with a mixture of characteristics from genetically distinct parents. But their useful traits are not passed on to their seeds because sexual reproduction, which involves two parents, shuffles genes. Now an international team of scientists has forced plants to produce seeds that are identical to themselves genetically (i.e. cloned), rather than containing a mix of genes from themselves and another parent. The seeds have thus retained all the useful traits of their parent.