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If a loph self-pollinates, will seeds give clones?

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Well, as the title says, if a self-fertile lophophora produces seeds, will the plants grown from those seeds be clones of the "mother" plant, since no new genetic material was introduced from a "father" plant?

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No the seeds would be slightly different genetically from that mother. They will be very similar however wouldn't be a clone since the DNA would be different.

Edited by modernshaman
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Higher Plants are diploide (polyploide sometimes), having a maternal and a paternal set of chromosomes.

Self fertile Lophophora are highly inbreed with very low genetic diversity. The selfed seeds from these plants are almost clones of the mother.

If the diploid plant has the chromosomes AA/BB/CC... ect ( 11 pairs, 22 chromosomes in total I think ), the haploid egg cells and pollen will both have chromosomes A/B/C...

The resulting diploid seeds will again be AA/BB/CC...

In plants with a broader genetical spectrum like a F1 hybrid potato the chromosome pairs might be Aa/Bb/Cc.... In meiosis the chromosom pairs get divided and one of the two copies goes into the egg cell or pollen. Egg cell and pollen have a haploid chromosome set like A/b/C... or a/b/C... or a/B/c... or A/B/c... ect.

The resulting seeds from a selfing could be any combination possible: aa/Bb/CC..., AA/Bb/Cc..., Aa/bb/Cc.....

So generally you don't get clones of the mother in a self polination. You get a new combination of the mothers genome. Sometimes a chromosome of the pair will not be passed on to the next generation, the other one from this pair will be passed double.

But if maternal chromosomes and paternal chromosomes from those pairs are identical, you will get genetically nearly identical seedlings.

Edited by spined
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A good question and a good answer! I am feeling much smarter now thx to you 2. I didn't know this myself and never thought about it either.

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Hey, I feel a bit clever too, for at least asking a good question :) And more clever now that I read the answer. Thanks a lot.

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