RECESSIVE TRAITS EASIER TO FIX THAN DOMINANT ONES

Do plant breeders prefer to work with dominant or recessive traits? While dominant traits are more commonly generated in families that have the trait, the breeder will actually have less work in establishing a true breeding line that expresses a recessive trait. Red vs. white wheat is a good example. Once a white seeded F2 is identified we know it will be true breeding because it is homozyous recessive at the gene pairs that control this trait. Red F2s are more common but a breeder does not know if a red type they select will produce white offspring because they carry the recessive allele for white. A breeder must grow out progeny from the reds, make sure they are all red and harvest this family separately to insure they have identified a true breeding red. Both dominant and recessive traits can be established in true breeding lines but the selection for true breeding parents is easiest with recessive traits.

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