Our modern crops have pretty confined gene pools at this time, and have been selectively bred to perform in a specific way under specific conditions. Selective breeding narrows the scope of the gene pool, and inbreeding eventually leads to decreased vigor. Inbreeding certainly leads to plants that perform well in only certain conditions. Out-crossing is essential to maintaining hybrid vigor, and maximum yields, and steering plants in the direction that they need to go in certain climate conditions. This is an effort to preserve a wide gene pool, namely a gene pool that has been adapting on its own instead of being selectively bred to perform under todays conditions, so that we may be able to out-cross current genetics to plants that may be better suited for a different climate condition that existed in the past and may be a new condition for us in the future.
AndorianKush t1_iw8oiiu wrote
Reply to COP27: Israel harnessing DNA of bygone wild crops to enhance food supply by Sariel007
Our modern crops have pretty confined gene pools at this time, and have been selectively bred to perform in a specific way under specific conditions. Selective breeding narrows the scope of the gene pool, and inbreeding eventually leads to decreased vigor. Inbreeding certainly leads to plants that perform well in only certain conditions. Out-crossing is essential to maintaining hybrid vigor, and maximum yields, and steering plants in the direction that they need to go in certain climate conditions. This is an effort to preserve a wide gene pool, namely a gene pool that has been adapting on its own instead of being selectively bred to perform under todays conditions, so that we may be able to out-cross current genetics to plants that may be better suited for a different climate condition that existed in the past and may be a new condition for us in the future.