Distant hybridization : It implies crosses of species, subspecies, breeds and strains for the purpose of obtaining marketable hybrids of the first generation.
Importance of distant hybridization:
• Distant hybridization is a combination of valuable features of parental forms in hybrids without noticeable increase in viability and, with intermediate growth rate.
• They comprise both heterosis hybrids and hybrid forms with a favorable combination of parental features.
• Abortion of embryos at one or the other stage of development is a characteristic feature of distant hybridization, e.g., the crossing of two species or varieties often fails when using distant parents who do not share many chromosomes. Embryo rescue is the process when plant breeders rescue inherently weak, immature or hybrid embryos to prevent degeneration. Common in lily, hybridizing to create new interspecific hybrids between the various lily groups (such as Asiatic, Oriental, Trumpet, etc ).
