Science on Sundays – Plant and their offspring: Trait reassortment, diversity and crops

Children are not exact copies of their parents, instead they get a mix of traits from both parents. This is due to trait reassortment that occurs during the formation of eggs and sperm.

The same is true for plants. How does this happen? What can go wrong? What does it mean for crops?

This talk will look at what happens with parental traits when plants reproduce through seed, ask how seedless fruit are made and talk about recent discoveries in trait reassortment control that can help breeders improve crops.