Hi! I have a few clarifying questions about genetic bottlenecking specifically.
From what I understand, the problem with banana cultivars is that they are all clones and therefore have no genetic diversity. So, plants where cultivars are propagated clonally are more likely to have the Gros Michel/Cavendish problem, and are at risk of dying out entirely if they all respond badly to a disease?
I am a little confused on how likely this is to lead to entire groups of plants going extinct, or rather, how this particular setting affects that likelihood. Say the first generation of bunker-dwellers is sealed in with a pretty diverse array of crops. Over time they're able to artificially select these crops to grow well in these very unnatural conditions. Is it the fact that these conditions are so strict/peculiar that would lead to the lack of genetic diversity? The fact that the desired traits are both specific and important and therefore you'll want to do whatever you can to make sure your crop has those traits? (Like, in the case of bananas today, making sure that they're able to survive being transported.)
Would it be possible (in the very long term) to reintroduce genetic diversity by introducing these engineered crops to different environments within the bunker? (I have some memory that this happened in the history of corn, but not all plants can be hybridized like corn.) The bunker's a pretty big place, and will have areas with different temperature, water, and soil conditions... though still less diverse than the environments on Earth, surely.
The big question is just how to decide which crops are likely to have these problems. (And I do want to include this; it's an interesting problem!) Does it have more to do with how they're propagated? More to do with how hardy they are in this environment? More to do with how genetically diverse they are when reproducing naturally (like, how much you can get away with not cloning/inbreeding/etc)?
This is all very interesting/complex, and I want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. Thanks again!
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branchandroot
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Date: 2025-03-10 12:38 pm (UTC)From what I understand, the problem with banana cultivars is that they are all clones and therefore have no genetic diversity. So, plants where cultivars are propagated clonally are more likely to have the Gros Michel/Cavendish problem, and are at risk of dying out entirely if they all respond badly to a disease?
I am a little confused on how likely this is to lead to entire groups of plants going extinct, or rather, how this particular setting affects that likelihood. Say the first generation of bunker-dwellers is sealed in with a pretty diverse array of crops. Over time they're able to artificially select these crops to grow well in these very unnatural conditions. Is it the fact that these conditions are so strict/peculiar that would lead to the lack of genetic diversity? The fact that the desired traits are both specific and important and therefore you'll want to do whatever you can to make sure your crop has those traits? (Like, in the case of bananas today, making sure that they're able to survive being transported.)
Would it be possible (in the very long term) to reintroduce genetic diversity by introducing these engineered crops to different environments within the bunker? (I have some memory that this happened in the history of corn, but not all plants can be hybridized like corn.) The bunker's a pretty big place, and will have areas with different temperature, water, and soil conditions... though still less diverse than the environments on Earth, surely.
The big question is just how to decide which crops are likely to have these problems. (And I do want to include this; it's an interesting problem!) Does it have more to do with how they're propagated? More to do with how hardy they are in this environment? More to do with how genetically diverse they are when reproducing naturally (like, how much you can get away with not cloning/inbreeding/etc)?
This is all very interesting/complex, and I want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. Thanks again!