Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Now here is where we can take a big short cut in manipulating the
gene pool for that population.
By cloning the parent plant MM, we can use this clone in our cross
with the Mm offspring. This is known as a BACKCROSS. Obviously
if our parent is female then we will have to use males from the Mm
selection in out backcross.
Now our first backcross will result in 50% being homozygous for that
trait (MM) and 50% of the offspring being heterozygous (Mm) for that
trait!
If we did not backcross but just used the heterozygous offspring for the
breeding program we would have ended up with:
which is 25% Homozygous Dominant (MM), 50% Heterozygous
(Mm), and 25% Homozygous Recessive (mm).
So backcrossing will seriously control the frequencies of a specific trait
in the offspring.
The first backcross is simply called A BACKCROSS. Now let us see
