It has been widely believed that Gregor Mendel’s experiments with peas (genus Pisum) were designed to discover the basic principles of heredity (genetics). Those more familiar with the history of genetics know that his work with peas sought to explain the laws governing the origin and development of hybrids (Hartl and Orel 1992, p. 245; Monaghan and Corcos 1985, p. 49–50; Stern and Sherwood 196...

The introduction of apomixis-asexual reproduction through seeds-into crop plants is considered the holy grail of agriculture, as it would provide a mechanism to maintain agriculturally important phenotypes [1, 2]. Apomicts produce clonal offspring, such that apomixis could be used to transgenerationally fix any genotype, including that of F1 hybrids, which are used in agriculture due to their s...

Changes in vegetation from 1990 to 2000 were examined at 10 high country localities, representing four grassland types: fescue tussock (Festuca novae-zelandiae), snow tussock (Chionochloa rigida), red tussock (C. rubra), and silver tussock (Poa cita). At each locality, three treatments were established: ambient sheep+rabbit grazing, rabbit grazing only, and no grazing. The mutivariate methods o...