Question

State why plant breeders are interested in artificial hybridisation programme. How do they carry out this process?

Answer 1

Artificial hybridisation allows plant breeders to incorporate desirable traits from different varieties or species into a single plant, resulting in improved characteristics such as higher yield, disease resistance, pest resistance, better taste, and adaptability to specific environmental conditions. This method uses selected pollen grains for pollination. This is performed through emasculation and bagging procedures.

• Emasculation: Emasculation is the procedure of excising anthers from the bisexual flower bud using forceps while preserving the integrity of the female reproductive structure, namely the pistil.
• Bagging: To protect the stigma from harmful pollen, emasculated flowers are covered with a butter paper bag. This is known as bagging. When a bagged flower's stigma becomes receptive, ripe pollen grains from the male parent's anthers are dusted on it. The flowers are rebagged and allowed to mature into fruits.
• Emasculation is unnecessary if the female parent is unisexual. In this instance, before the flowers bloom, the female flower buds are immediately bagged. Appropriate pollens are sprinkled onto the stigma to enable germination once it is receptive.