Maternal traits vs. biparental traits
A plant breeder or seed producer is concerned with maintaining genetic purity in
Ripened fertilized ovule of a flowering plant that contains an embryo and normally capable of germination.
The characteristic that results from an expressing gene(s). Ex. Upright leaves, drought tolerance, Bt resistance. A trait can be influenced by the environment.
The red pigment in red wheat is deposited in a layer of cells in the seed that is actually a part of the female plant. Therefore, this grain color trait is maternal. If the plant producing seeds has only the recessive alleles for white, the seed will be white even if the pollen came from a red plant to produce that seed. Maternal traits may also occur when the metabolic status of the mother plant dictates the amounts of seed components. Producers who grow white wheat have only one thing to worry about to maintain purity in their fields: the
The allelic composition of a cell or organism.
In contrast to white wheat is white corn. For two reasons, white corn provides purity challenges to the producer. First, the trait is not maternal. The yellow color in corn kernels is formed in a layer of cells that is produced by the seed and thus contains genes from both the male and female parent. The white trait is
A trait that will not be expressed phenotypically unless there are two copies of the gene allele (homozygous at the locus) present in an organism.
Dust-like material produced by the anther (male reproductive structure) that is composed of pollen grains (microgametophytes) which carry the male gametes of seed plants; important in fertilization.