Wayne Parrott

The ability of meiotic parallel spindles to restore fertility to haploids was first described in peach in 1971. doi.org/10.21273/JASHS.96.3.… They have also been reported restore fertility to synaptic mutants of potato and clover.

Looking forward to try juice from the tomato edited for higher GABA content.

Trying to get a handle on future transformation needs, particularly for bioenergy crops genomicscience.energy.gov/pl…

Wonder why plant tissue culture can be so irreproducible? Here are 4 recipes for Murashige & Skoog micro nutrients pulled off the internet:

Sexually incompatible grasses can exchange genes with a frequency that would make GMO regulators' heads spin. How does that happen? nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/…

Ad for mutagenized seeds, from a time when "expect the unexpected" was a call for adventure and discovery, and harmless genetic changes in plants did not evoke fear, precaution, and regulations. From Chicago Daily Times, 26 Apr 1961.

I learned a new word today- Beadledom. And, it is not nearly as useless as Merriam-Webster says- it is is the perfect description for the modus operandi of way too many of the crop biotech regulating agencies around the world. shorturl.at/jnxEF

City folks love to romanticize agriculture. From the romanticized perspective, technology can only ruin the life idyllic and the harmony with nature. Here is a particularly egregious example -- the mural from the USDA building in DC.

Breeders have done a good job of adding genes & traits to modern varieties, thus incorporating genetic diversity from many different parents. Here is an eg from soybean: the variety 'Uram' has traits from 33 different ancestors, representing decades of breeding effort.

Found this Eg of genetic diversity loss in Italian wheats. DOI 10.1007/s10722-005-7902-x The loss predates the biotech era. It is probably representative of other crops and regions as well. Hopefully most of the old varieties are stored in seed banks.