Question

Decrease in the vigour due to inbreeding is caused due to

• A. Self pollination
• B. Cross pollination
• C. Polyploid
• D. Pure lines

Answer 1

The correct option is A Self pollination

Self-pollination is a form of pollination that can occur when a flower has both stamen and a carpel (pistil) in which the cultivar or species is self fertile and the stamens and the sticky stigma of the carpel contact each other in order to accomplish pollination. The term is inaccurately used in many cases where an outside pollinator is actually required; such plants are merely self-fertile, or self pollenizing.
The disadvantages of self-pollination come from a lack of variation that allows no adaptation to the changing environment or potential pathogen attack. Self-pollination can lead to inbreeding depression, or the reduced health of the species, due to the breeding of related specimens. This is why many flowers that could potentially self-pollinate have a built-in mechanism to avoid it, or make it second choice at best. Genetic defects in self-pollinating plants cannot be eliminated by genetic recombination and offspring can only avoid inheriting the deleterious attributes through a chance mutation arising in a gamete.