Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Is it a super hard project to try to crossbreed plants? I've always wanted to cross breed plants to see want they look like. If it is too hard is it legal to crossbreed animals in science fair projects? Like a rabbit or rat?

Hello and welcome to the forum Applepooch. Though it is possible to successfully crossbreed animals (dogs and cats for instance) I do not recommend attempting this as a science fair project. It would take a while before you would see results due to their relatively slow reproduction rate, and there are serious ethical considerations regarding potentially harmful outcomes for the offspring (poor health, deformation). Plants reproduce faster and are better suited to a science fair project.

There are two approaches used to crossbreed plants. The classical approach is to place two plants next to eachother and let them "breed" naturally. In order to reproduce successfully these plants must be closely related (typically from the same genus). The modern approach uses molecular biology to change the plant at the genetic level. Specific genes for a desired trait are inserted into the genome of the plant you want to change. The classical approach is less complicated and requires no specialized equipment. If you are interested in pursuing a project using the modern approach, I recommend speaking with your teacher to see if there are any facilities in your area (such as a university or private company) where people do this type of work. If so you could ask for their help and perhaps use their lab space and equipment.

If you decide to go ahead with this you will need to come up with a hypothesis to test and begin gathering materials for your experiments. Below are links to the Science Buddies Science Fair Project Guide and to a source for fast-growing plants which should help get you started. If you need any further help or have any questions please let us know.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... l?From=tab
http://www.fastplants.org/

Good luck!

Ryan

So, if I understand you correctly, you want to breed two different species and see what you get? "Hybrid" is the term to describe that. I think plants are the way you want to go, for time, difficulty, not to mention ethical reasons about working with animals (you are getting into mad scientist territory here). I suppose it might be possible to breed two closely related species of fruit flies or worms, but perhaps not that interesting to you--they'd still just look like fruit flies or worms and you might need careful analysis, or DNA work, to confirm the hybridization. There are indeed occasions where different animal species interbreed, for example horse+donkey=mule, but mules are sterile. (Ryan are you suggesting dogs and cats can be bred with EACH OTHER? that would be news to me) I think there are domestic/wildcat mixed breeds out there, too, for example.

Mixing two species is not necessarily an easy thing to do, because the definition of species is something that doesn't breed outside its group.

Here's a link I found with a summary of techniques to artificially breed plants: http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/envir ... 91pr4.html There are ways you can "help" the plants along to encourage them to breed with partners they normally wouldn't cross with.

And here's a whole book on the topic: http://www.scipub.net/botany/fundamenta ... ction.html

Certainly flower growers are always trying to come up with interesting new hybrids like different-colored roses. You might try something similar, although there's no guarantee of success--probably the more closely related the two parents the better. Hybrids can be particularly weak or sensitive--or they can be strong, combining the best of both parents. I suggest Googling around for terms like hybrid, plant breeding, and see what you come up with.

Here's another thought--you could use artificial breeding techniques to determine the inheritance of certain plant traits such as flower color. In this way you'd be following in the footsteps of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, who controlled the breeding of pea plants to see what genes would be dominant or recessive. So for example you could cross two different-colored flowers, see what you get, and use that information to determine how the flower color is controlled.