I included the original statement made in the thread concerning Zea. There
is no mention of apomixis in that genus nor has there been any discovery of
it occurring in the genus. If you would rather believe a false claim made by
Phredo without any actual proof, then you have learned nothing at all. Once
again you have proven to be the arrogant imbecile, Bev, because you
willingly believe the wrong person for the wrong reasons. You have been and
remain a disappointment not worthy of serious consideration. Zea x Tripsacum
hybrids are NOT the same thing as pure lines in the genus Zea. The
intergeneric hybrids were not commercially viable.

http://www.apomixis.de/APO2001_Abstract_Book.doc.

"APOMICTIC MAIZE: PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES

Victor A. Sokolov, Irina V. Khatypova

The attempts to find genetically controlled apomixis in diploid or
tetraploid maize failed. So at our laboratory a course, traditional in such
cases, was taken - transfer of a character, necessary from the selection
point of view, from the closest relatives by a way of distant hybridization.
The closest relative of maize having an apomictic mode of reproduction is
tetraploid Tripsacum (Tripsacum dactyloides) 2n=4x=72. So with the purpose
of obtaining apomictic maize hybridization of 2n=4x=40 Zea mays with
Tripsacum was conducted. The amphidiploid F1 hybrids had 2n=56 (20Zm + 36Td)
and were apomicts having a female fertility at the Tripsacum level with a
total male sterility.

Their backcrosses using 2n=20 and 2n=4x=40 pollen parents allowed to develop
a wide set of apomictic lines with reduction of Tripsacum chromosomes to 9.

Despite the fact that they were obtained independently all they have the
same set of 9 chromosomes of Tripsacum. The further reduction even by one
chromosome of Tripsacum leads to the loss of the apomictic mode of
reproduction and as a consequence to the loss of all gamagrass chromosomes
in subsequent generations.

The cytogenetic analysis showed the polygenic character of the genetic
system providing the apomictic development in Tripsacum and its hybrids with
maize.

So we try to obtain from the highly imperfect 39-chromosome hybrids of maize
with Tripsacum lines that wouldn’t be inferior to maize in kernel
productivity and quality."


Beverly Erlebacher wrote in message
. ..
In article ,
Cereoid-UR12- wrote:
It never did happen.

Phredo completely misunderstood what was previously said by nobody. (How
appropriate!!!)

I'll believe Phred before I'll believe you, since his posts are usually
well informed and lacking in childishness. If someone has discovered
apomixis in Zea, it's an interesting development, and I'd like to hear
more about it. The way he phrased it:

(And I suppose we could even throw in Zea now.)

makes it sound like it's a very new development, or perhaps that it was
achieved by unusual means.

Hmm, 30 seconds with google shows that there's a lot of work being done
hybridizing Zea and Tripsacum, and investigating apomixis in the hybrids,
including efforts to produce apomictic maize cultivars. I get 537 hits,
mostly to journal articles, some as prestigious as Nature, and to research
laboratories and university courses in plant science. What's more, there
are bibliographic refs back to the 1970s, so it's not even new.

Phred (knowledge) 1
Cereoid (childishness) 0