Do you use the mentor method in animal breeding?

Various branches of science dealing with the cultivation of varieties of cultivated plants, breeds of farm animals and strains of bacteria, use both traditional and newest practical techniques and methods. They will depend, first of all, on the object of selection work. In other words, when carrying out experiments with plants, a scientist can apply a mass selection or a mentor method, whereas in dealing with animals or microorganisms, such techniques are used to a limited extent, and even not at all.

The task of this article will be to clarify the question of whether such a form of breeding work, as a mentor method, is theoretically possible and practically feasible in creating new or improving existing breeds of cattle, pigs and poultry.

Features of animal breeding

The work of Charles Darwin, widely known in the scientific circles, "Changes in domestic animals and cultivated plants under the influence of domestication", written in the middle of the 19th century, is still a reference book for a whole galaxy of modern scientists engaged in practical activities. In it the main breeding methods are named: hybridization, heterosis and closely related crossing, based on artificial selection.

In animal experiments, its mass form is avoided, since usually a pair of parents give a small number of hybrids, each of which has a certain value in material equivalence. Let's not forget that for representatives of classes Birds and Mammals, which are mainly the main objects of breeding work, are characterized by sexual reproduction only. This means that receptions based on vegetative forms (cuttings, grafting, grafting) are unacceptable for animals. In order to understand the question of whether the method of mentor is used in breeding animals, it will be logical to first clarify the essence of this method.

Teacher's method

The outstanding Russian scientist, the selection breeder IV Michurin, whose brilliant studies became the foundations for world science, applied a purposeful vegetative approach of plants of two different varieties. As a result, both individuals began to acquire new attributes and properties. For example, the shape, size or color of the fruit, as well as their taste, changed. Carrying a vaccination in the crown of the rootstock, IV Michurin was able to create such conditions under which the stem began to receive nutrients from the mother.

All this in the end result changed the course of metabolic reactions in the cells and tissues of the grafted cut, and hence its phenotypic signs. The above method of inoculation became known in plant breeding as a method of mentor.

Examples of creating new varieties of fruit crops

One of the earliest, received by I. Michurin back in 1908, is the cultivar of the apple tree of Belfler-Chinaka. As a scion, the breeder took a stalk of the American variety Belfler yellow with outstanding taste qualities. The stock was served by the sapling of China, a large-bred - local variety, distributed on the territory of Central Russia. Its main advantages were frost resistance and resistance to the main diseases of apple trees - scab and powdery mildew. Applying the method of the mentor, the scientist, as a result of hybridization, obtained a new variety, best adapted to the complex climatic conditions of the northern latitudes in combination with the high palatability of the fruit. Apples of Michurinsky variety have a white flesh of tender dessert taste with a delicate aroma.

For more than hundred years, this culture continues to be grown in private households not only in Russia, but also in Ukraine, Armenia, and the republics of the North Caucasus. Gardeners appreciate this variety also for consistently high yield and frost resistance. At breeding stations and in fruit nurseries, the Belfler-Chinaki saplings are also used as a stock in hybridization processes, thanks to which about 13 new varieties were created.

Goals and objectives of receiving directed education of hybrid plants

Proceeding from the above facts, the enormous importance of the experimental work of IV Michurin, who not only developed the mentor method, but also made him one of the leaders in the derivation of new varieties of fruit and berry crops, becomes understandable.

The experiments of the successors of the scientist - ES Stroev, E. N. Sedov and other employees of the All-Russian Research Institute of Fruit Crop Selection, summarized the goals achieved as a result of the application of directed breeding techniques for hybrid seedlings.

The most significant of these include the following: the leveling of unfavorable phenotypic traits in hybrid individuals, and the fixation of desirable properties for humans in the plants of the variety being created. Summarizing numerous results of plant breeding, the researchers came to an understanding of certain regularities that accompany the use of vaccines in practice. Let us consider them in more detail.

Conditions for obtaining vegetative hybrids

Using the mentor method in animal breeding, the following rules must be taken into account:

• A plant from which they take a stalk or a kidney (graft), must be vegetatively young, not older than 1-2 years, and as a mentor the offspring of a perennial tree is used;
• Next to the vegetative grafting shoot, a large number of branches of the stock must be preserved, ensuring the effect on the phenotypic signs of the plant being planted.

Thanks to the above conditions, breeders manage to form economically valuable properties in fruit and berry crops. Being one of the most popular and widespread methods of breeding new varieties of agricultural crops, this method, unfortunately, still remains insufficiently studied by modern biochemists and cytologists.

Fabric Engineering

On the question of whether the method of mentor is used in breeding animals or not, the answer will be negative. Interesting in this connection are studies on biotechnology concerning cloning, that is, the synthesis of a complete copy of the organism from a matrix (one or more somatic cells). In this case, an analogy with the vegetative form of reproduction of plant organisms is traced, since the resulting clone of the animal consists of cells homogeneous by genotype. Experiments in the field of tissue and genetic engineering are carried out by the method of their cultivation on a nutrient medium. All the hereditary information about the organism is stored in the chromosomes of the nuclei, which means that it is possible to obtain an unlimited number of individuals - copies - from just one cell.

Characteristics of animal breeding methods

IV Michurin developed the method of the mentor exclusively for using it in experiments with plant organisms, more specifically, specifically with fruit and berry crops. As we said earlier, animal studies have their own specifics. First of all, this is the absence of vegetative reproduction in higher vertebrates.

It should be remembered that their organisms are characterized by a high degree of integration of all organs and systems, so changing one sign of a certain organ under the influence of the mentor will inevitably lead to serious disruptions in the work of systems related to it anatomically and physiologically. In practice, it will be expedient to introduce the following techniques into working with animals, namely: closely related (inbreeding) and remote hybridization. The first is used to create clean lines and further to obtain the effect of heterosis, and the second is used to excrete new breeds of animals.