Dangerous Liaisons?: When Cultivated Plants Mate with Their Wild Relatives (Syntheses in Ecology and Evolution)

By Norman C. Ellstrand

Book Overview

With the advent of genetic engineering, designer crops might interbreed with natural populations. Could such romances lead to the evolution of superweeds, as some have suggested? But haven't crops bred with wild plants in the past? Has such gene swapping occurred without consequences? And if consequences have indeed occurred, what lessons can be gleaned for engineered crops? with basic information about the natural hybridization process. He then describes what we now know about hybridization between the world's most important crops - such as wheat, rice, maize and soybeans - and their wild relatives. Such hybridization, Ellstrand explains, is not rare, and has occasionally had a substantial impact. In some cases, the result was problematic weeds. In others, crop genes have diluted natural diversity to the point that wild populations of certain rare species were absorbed into the gene pool of the more common crop, essentially bringing the wild species to the brink of extinction. greater threat than traditional crops? If so, can gene flow and hybridization be managed to control the escape of engineered genes? This book should appeal to academics, policy makers, students, and all with an interest in environmental issues.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080187405X
• ISBN13: 9780801874055
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"