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Questions and Answers: 2014

Question: Does breeding of plants make them express juvenile traits analogous to the way breeding does in animals? Is one trait …

• Question

  Does breeding of plants make them express juvenile traits analogous to the way breeding does in animals? Is one trait a non-shattering seed head? As animals are domesticated,they often display juvenile traits they are not bred to show. Dogs were bred to be nice and they got shortened skull bones,a juvenile trait,unintentionally. Do plants do the same kind of thing? This would be where oats was bred to have big seeds and as a unintentional result got a non-shattering seed head too. Thank you.

  Answer

  pkbeep, plants and animals have very different genetics. Keep in mind, many species of plants are polyploids (i.e., have three or more sets of chromosomes), so the inheritance and expression of traits can be very complicated in these organisms. Some of the features observed in domesticated animals traits expressed in the juvenile stages (and are maintained in the adults). In the case of plants, the juvenile plant isn't reproductively mature, so it can't demonstrate a different kind of shattering of the fruiting structures. Though we do certainly notice certain trends in domesticated plants (as compared with their wild progenitors), such as reduced nutrition and phytochemical potency, it is difficult to make the same observations with domesticated animals vs. cultivated plants. Best wishes.