About Lesson
Limitations of Allopolyploidy
- The effects of allopolyploidy cannot be predicted. The allopolyploids have some features from both the parental species, but these features may be the undesirable ones, e.g., Raphanobrassica, or the desirable ones, e.g., Triticale.
- Newly synthesized allopolyploids have many defects, e.g., low fertility, cytogenetic and genetic instability, other undesirable features etc.
- The synthetic allopolyploids have to be improved through extensive breeding at the polyploidy level. This involves considerable time, labour and other resources.
- Only a small proportion of allopolyploids are promising; a vast majority of them are valueless for agricultural purposes.