blue spruce color heritability

[Bruce M. Marshall]

William J. Buikema (wjb1 at midway.uchicago.edu) wrote:
: Hello,
: 	My father-in-law grows some blue spruces in Michigan part time, and
: has told me (and shown me) that the blue color varies considerably from tree
: to tree.  Apparently the color does not develop at the seedling stage, so 
: when the fields are planted, there is no way to tell how 'blue' any seedling
: will become.  
: 	Does anyone have any ideas about why the seedlings that are planted
: cannot be derived from sources that will guarantee the strong blue color in
: less than a random fashion?  Being a geneticist, it seems to me that continued 
: selection for the color and careful selection of propagation sources should 
: ensure efficient selection of the desired traits.  Does anyone have a better
: feel for this?

: Thanks!

: Bill

: -- 
: William J. Buikema        Phone: (773)702-1081   e-mail: hetman at uchicago.edu
: Dept. Mol. Genet. & Cell Biol.                   /  / --- --- /|/|  /|  /| /
: Univ. of Chicago, 920 E. 58th St.               /--/ /-   /  / / | /-| / |/
: Chicago, IL 60637 USA       Fax: (773)702-3172 /  / /__  /  /    |/  |/  /

clone, Clone, CLONE!!!
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