Gary Zill's new mango variety program is NOT "chance seedlings."
The seed parent was selected.
The pollen parent only was partly chance--- open pollination, with only pollen of superior varieties available on surrounding trees.
Thousands of seeds were planted each year, with each seed tagged per mother tree's variety name and location.
Freshly germinated seedlings were evaluated for smell and appearance.
Only very interesting seedlings, "pre-selections", were kept to grow out in the field.
It was all very systematic. I am a witness.
I would like to clear up that I am not for GMO's I did not want to get into that hot topic, but it is hard to avoid, when the subject of genetics comes up. I understand that Zill, uses his sniffer and eyes, to confirm that indeed the pollen from one tree did cross with another. and that's great. but this will not tell you all the traits and attributes the tree will years down the line. and most of us, simply do not have a great sniffing apparatus between our eyes
Imagination awakened.
It's still a good idea to have some sort of a backup seed bank, scion bank, etc.to fall back on but not in the same spot as the one recently mentioned with the melting intrusion of sea water if the new genetic combinations prove inferior over climate changes (co2 levels, o2 levels, temperature variations, etc. etc.).
Of course when reading plant genetic trait testing the thought of similar animal testing emerges and the favorite movie of mine is the oldie GATTACA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca
We are left at the end of the movie with the hope that your motivation, desire, and determination may be enough to overcome and succeed over supposedly genetic superior individuals. It's always fun to pull for the underdog and a great movie.
I'll have to talk to my little plants and see if they have any motivation, desire, and determination to add to their genetic qualities to eventually make me a good tasting mango.
I really liked that movie, came out when the news of the human genome being mapped was a big thing in the news. how naive of us to thing that genetics was that easy. we just thought that we could pop a gene for a particular traits and presto, you have that trait. does not work that way. epi-genome, or SNPs. the little switches on each gene, and other genes in specific combinations work together. this has NOT been mapped. but is being worked on. to simplify this to my friends, I just tell people that Genes are like words or computer instruction, one word on its own does not say much.
I have been really interested in this topic for last couple years, was considering getting my genome mapped at "23andme", but until laws are passed that protect genetic privacy, I think I'll wait. the fear here is that your genetic predisposition can be used against you, imagine Insurance company raising your rates because heart disease runs in your genes? yes we are getting to GATTACA scenario. anyway this is drifting off topic, but just wanted to make the point that I am not against science and technology, if it is applied responsibly, and with knowledge of what they are doing.
Getting back to mangoes, what happens when some bio-lab starts mixing genes from different species, is that you make that new creation susceptible to new diseases. also, and this is very important, is that SNPs can change states. epigenome can switch, after birth/germination. or will switch in offspring. this is why we need to be careful with GMOs, the pollen contaminates wild varieties, and can have negative effects, generations down the line, as SNPs change states. we have no way of knowing what will happen down the line. its basically impossible to know now , every single genetic combination that can happen. I do not want to sound like an alarmist or tin hatter here.
So as a tool, mapping the genome of plants, to assist in the natural breeding of mangoes or any other plant will be very useful. it should cut decades of the time needed to develop new varieties.
