OllieFromCairo t1_j9fgq0o wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL that ligers (the offspring of a male lion and female tiger) are the largest big cat because, unlike lionesses, female tigers do not possess growth-limiting genes to counter the growth-maximising genes of male lions. by argh-ok
Not true. Sometimes the hybrids do just fine, like in the case of tilapia, or apple trees.
It can also be highly sex-dependent. For example, you can cross a domestic cattle bull with a bison cow, and the female offspring will generally be fertile, and the male offspring generally will not be.
However, those hybrid cows can reproduce with male bison, and now almost every bison herd in North America has some fraction of domestic cattle genes in it.
Yak bulls can produce fully fertile offspring of both sexes with Bison cows, but not the other way around.
FloweringSkull67 t1_j9ficvq wrote
Your example of Apple trees is wrong. Apple trees are spliced to get the strain you want. You could have two apple trees of the same type and the the offspring would be a completely different apple.
OllieFromCairo t1_j9fla9u wrote
You’re responding to something I didn’t say. I didn’t say anything about fruit variety propagation. Malus sylvestris crosses with M. sieversii, M. coronaria and a bunch of other species just fine, producing fecund offspring.
Whether you get a palatable apple from the cross is an unrelated question.
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