Everything about Heterosis totally explained
Heterosis is a term used in
genetics and
selective breeding. The term heterosis, also known as
hybrid vigor or
outbreeding enhancement, describes the increased strength of different characteristics in
hybrids; the possibility to obtain a genetically superior by combining the virtues of its parents.
Heterosis is the opposite of
inbreeding depression, which occurs with increasing
homozygosity. The term often causes controversy, particularly in terms of the selective breeding of
domestic animals, because it's sometimes believed that all
crossbred plants or animals are genetically superior to their parents; this isn't necessarily true. When a hybrid is seen to be superior to its parents, this is known as hybrid vigor. When the opposite happens, and a hybrid inherits traits from their parents that makes them unfit for survival, the result is referred to as
outbreeding depression. Typical examples of this are crosses between wild and hatchery fish that have incompatible adaptations.
Genetic basis of heterosis
Two leading hypotheses explain the genetic basis for
fitness advantage in heterosis.
The
overdominance hypothesis implies that the combination of divergent
alleles at a particular
locus will result in a higher fitness in the
heterozygote than in the
homozygote. Take the example of parasite resistance controlled by gene A, with two alleles A and a. The heterozygous individual will then be able to express a broader array of parasite resistance alleles and thus resist a broader array of parasites. The homozygous individual, on the other hand, will only express one allele of gene A (either A or a) and therefore won't resist as many parasites as the heterozygote.
The second hypothesis involves
avoidance of deleterious recessive genes (also called the
general dominance hypothesis), such that heterozygous individuals will express less deleterious recessive alleles than its homozygous counterpart.
The two hypotheses will have different consequences on the
gene expression profile of the individuals. If over-dominance is the main cause for the fitness advantages of heterosis, then there should be an over-expression of certain genes in the heterozygous offspring compared to the homozygous parents. On the other hand, if avoidance of deleterious recessive genes is the cause, then there should be fewer genes that are under-expressed in the heterozygous offspring compared to the parents. Furthermore, for any given gene, the expression should be comparable to the one observed in the best of the two parents.
Hybrid corn
Nearly all the field corn now grown in the United States and most other developed nations is hybrid corn. Modern corn hybrids substantially outyield conventional cultivars and respond better to fertilization.
Heterosis in
maize was famously demonstrated in the early 20th century by George H. Shull and Edward M. East after hybrid corn was invented by
Dr. William James Beal of
Michigan State University based on work begun in 1879 at the urging of
Charles Darwin. Dr. Beal's work led to the first published account of a field experiment demonstrating hybrid vigor in corn, by Eugene Davenport and Perry Holden, 1881. These various pioneers of botany and related fields showed that crosses of inbred lines made from a Southern dent and a Northern flint, respectively, showed substantial heterosis and outyielded conventional cultivars of that era. However, at that time such hybrids couldn't be economically made on a large scale for use by farmers.
Donald F. Jones at the
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station,
New Haven invented the first practical method of producing a high-yielding hybrid maize in 1914-1917. Jones' method produced a double-cross hybrid, which requires two crossing steps working from four distinct original inbred lines. Later work by corn breeders produced inbred lines with sufficient vigor for practical production of a commercial hybrid in a single step, the single-cross hybrids. Single-cross hybrids are made from just two original parent inbreds. They are generally more vigorous and also more uniform than the earlier double-cross hybrids. The process of creating these hybrids often involves
detasseling.
Hybrid livestock
The concept of heterosis is also applied in the production of commercial
livestock. In cattle, hybrids between
Black Angus and
Hereford produce a hybrid known as a “
Black Baldy.” In
swine, “blue butts” are produced by the cross of
Hampshire and Yorkshire. Other more exotic hybrids such as “
beefalo” are also used for specialty markets.
Within
poultry,
sex-linked genes have been used to create hybrids in which males and females can be sorted at one day old by color. Specific genes used for this are genes for barring and wing feather growth. Crosses of this sort create what are sold as Black Sex-links, Red Sex-links, and various other crosses that are known by trade names.
Commercial broilers are produced by crossing different strains of White Rocks and White Cornish, the Cornish providing a large frame and the Rocks providing the fast rate of gain. The hybrid vigor produced allows the production of uniform birds with a marketable carcass at 6-9 weeks of age.
Likewise, hybrids between different strains of White Leghorn are used to produce laying flocks that provide the majority white
eggs for sale in the United States.
Further Information
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