TY - JOUR
T1 - Progress toward understanding heterosis in crop plants
AU - Schnable, Patrick S.
AU - Springer, Nathan M.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/4
Y1 - 2013/4
N2 - Although heterosis, or hybrid vigor, is widely exploited in agriculture, a complete description of its molecular underpinnings has remained elusive despite extensive investigation. It appears that there is not a single, simple explanation for heterosis. Instead, it is likely that heterosis arises in crosses between genetically distinct individuals as a result of a diversity of mechanisms. Heterosis generally results from the action of multiple loci, and different loci affect heterosis for different traits and in different hybrids. Hence, multigene models are likely to prove most informative for understanding heterosis. Complementation of allelic variation, as well as complementation of variation in gene content and gene expression patterns, is likely to be an important contributor to heterosis. Epigenetic variation has the potential to interact in hybrid genotypes via novel mechanisms. Several other intriguing hypotheses are also under investigation. In crops, heterosis must be considered within the context of the genomic impacts of prior selection for agronomic traits. ©
AB - Although heterosis, or hybrid vigor, is widely exploited in agriculture, a complete description of its molecular underpinnings has remained elusive despite extensive investigation. It appears that there is not a single, simple explanation for heterosis. Instead, it is likely that heterosis arises in crosses between genetically distinct individuals as a result of a diversity of mechanisms. Heterosis generally results from the action of multiple loci, and different loci affect heterosis for different traits and in different hybrids. Hence, multigene models are likely to prove most informative for understanding heterosis. Complementation of allelic variation, as well as complementation of variation in gene content and gene expression patterns, is likely to be an important contributor to heterosis. Epigenetic variation has the potential to interact in hybrid genotypes via novel mechanisms. Several other intriguing hypotheses are also under investigation. In crops, heterosis must be considered within the context of the genomic impacts of prior selection for agronomic traits. ©
KW - Epigenetics
KW - Genetic diversity
KW - Hybrid vigor
KW - Structural variation
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U2 - 10.1146/annurev-arplant-042110-103827
DO - 10.1146/annurev-arplant-042110-103827
M3 - Review article
C2 - 23394499
AN - SCOPUS:84877658412
SN - 1543-5008
VL - 64
SP - 71
EP - 88
JO - Annual Review of Plant Biology
JF - Annual Review of Plant Biology
ER -