This post will address a genetics "problem" as well as a naming "problem".



We all know that theorhetically, a corn crossed with a california kingsnake produces an F1 junglecorn that is essentially 50% corn and 50% king, and should be portrayed as such. The problem occurs when two F1's are crossed to produce F2's, which we falsely dub "50% corn, 50% king". I'm sure you've already figured out where I'm going with this, but I'll explain in more detail for those who may not have realized this yet.



When you first breed a corn to a king, during "crossing over", the genes are randomly divided into halves and only one half of the mothers genes and one half of the fathers genes make up the genetics of the initial offspring. Either way, half of a corn is still "corn genetics" and the same with the king.



However, when crossing over occurs in F1 hybrids, ANY half of the genes may be passed on. Technically, an offspring of two F1 junglecorns could very well be 100% corn or 100% king, or ANY ratio of the two. Only the AVERAGE of the F2 clutch would be "50% corn, 50% king".



Take this example:

corn = c , king = k

cccccc X kkkkkk = ccckkk

(half of cccccc is ccc, and half of kkkkkk is kkk, so 100% of the offspring must be ccckkk)



ccckkk X ccckkk= cccccc, ccccck, cccckk, ccckkk, cckkkk, ckkkkk, kkkkkk

(half of ccckkk can be ccc, cck, ckk, or kkk; thus, each F1 can donate any percentage of either parent species DNA to the resulting F2's)



Is it okay to call an F2 hybrid a 50/50 cross?



And likewise, an F1 junglecorn bred to a "pure" corn or king (backbreeding) can still produce 50/50 hybrids in the same manner if the F1 happens to pass on it's "king" half of its DNA, or produce 100% corns. Again, the average would be 75% corn, 25% king, but the likelihood of any given offspring actually being 75/25 is very small since there are millions of genes, not just six.



Will it even be possible to establish breeds? How long could it take for a hybrid cultivar to retain genetics from both species and breed true? Or does nature have a sort of "fail-safe" mechanism to eventually revert hybrids back to their original species?



I'd really like to hear everyones take on this situation as it has bothered me for quite some time.



Thanx for listening!


-----
~Venom~



Hybrid Breeders Association

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