Improving Plants

Pollination is the process where pollen grains are transferred from the male anther to the female stigma of a flower (USDA, 2017). Some plants can pollinate them self, others can only be pollinated through cross pollination. Lavender is a perfect flower, which means that she has both female and male sexual organs. Other plants might only have male or female parts and are dependent on cross-pollination. Lavender can pollinate itself but cross pollination is also possible. This helps to increase the genetic diversity. (Sadava, 2011)

 

Figure 1 Bee pollinating a lavender plant (pxhere, 2017)

To produce desired characteristics, breeding is used. It is a natural way of choosing favourable plants to produce a new generation. For many crops that is used to increase the production per yield but for lavender it is manly used to increase the oil content. English Lavender (L. angustifolia) is one of the varieties which is high in essential oils. To give an example how breeding is used for lavender plant: Two different varieties of Lavendula are crossed and this results in a  plant which produces the highest yield of flowers and the highest concentration of essential oil per hectare. (Department of Agriculture, 2009)

Another way to develop plants is with transgenesis. This means that the DNA is modified through genetic engineering. If we look at the fact that we will be nearly nine billion people by 2050 and climate change is happening, we can say that we have to find ways to feed everyone. I’m not saying that we are not able to do that but if climate changes, then we have to find ways to adapt to it. With genetic engineering we might be able to develop plants which will also grow in regions which have issues with droughts or salinization.  On the other side, I think if transgenetic plants are only developed to be resistant against certain pests and diseases, we can be in a few years already at a point where we created diseases which are a much bigger issue than the one we had in the beginning. In general I think that, to modify plants genetically is a very powerful tool and we should handle it with care.

Another point to consider is that if a crop has a certain genotype and you want to plant it in different regions than the phenotype can be the same but it could also differ. Also the environment and differnt soils have a large impact on a plant. To conclude, the phenotype is the outcome from the genotype and the environment.

Bibliography

Department of Agriculture, F. a. (2009). Lavender production. South Africa: Directorate Agricultural Information Services.

pxhere. (2017). Retrieved from pxhere: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/676731

Sadava, H. H. (2011). Reproduction in flowering plants. In H. H. Sadava, Life - The Science of Biology (p. 798). Sunderland: Sinauer Associates.

USDA. (2017). What is Pollination. Retrieved from USDA- Forst Service: https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/What_is_Pollination/