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Apple detectives solved mystery of ancient tree and rewrote the history of fruit

71 points · 19 comments · nkurz

  1. CSMastermind · · focus · HN ↗
    Apples have some of wildest biology that I've seen as a non-professional biologist. At many genes, they carry two different alleles instead of two matching ones. They're almost all self-incompatible. A Honeycrisp flower cannot pollinate a Honeycrisp flower.

    This means that you can't breed them in the traditional sense that we do with other plants. Outside of Granny Smith apples the ones you eat are mostly the results of mutations in the grown plants that we cut off and graft.

    1. jmartrican · · focus · HN ↗
      Oh wow you may have just answered a question I been having. I planted some apple trees in my backyard. The AI helping me suggested 3 trees, one of which was a crab-apple tree that it said will be used to pollinate the other two. Maybe it lied to me. But i did follow its instructions. I was wondering why the other two (Honeycrisp and another delicious variety) could not just pollinate each other.
      1. biotinker · · focus · HN ↗
        The GP comment is overstating the genetic differences and pollination difficulties. Most apples are not self-fertile. Pairing pollinators together has more to do with bloom times; some trees bloom earlier/later than others and trees need to have flowers out simultaneously.

        Here's some more reading:

        <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cumminsnursery.com&#x2F;learn-trees&#x2F;fruit-tree-bloom-dates&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cumminsnursery.com&#x2F;learn-trees&#x2F;fruit-tree-bloom-...

        <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cumminsnursery.com&#x2F;learn-trees&#x2F;fruit-tree-pollination" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cumminsnursery.com&#x2F;learn-trees&#x2F;fruit-tree-pollin...

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