Interspecific Hybridization in Plant Biology

Many crop gene pools are derived from a small number of founders. As a consequence of long histories of strong directional selection, crop gene pools have narrow genetic diversity available to provide inherent solutions to changing needs or challenges. Notoriously, plants can mate across taxonomically-determined species boundaries, and interspecific hybridization is widely used in plant genetics research. Interspecific hybridizations have conferred practical improvements to crops, some of which are unexpected based on the phenotypes of the parents.
Genomics has provided insights into the fundamental consequences of interspecific hybridization for plant biology. Additionally, genomics has allowed the development of molecular tools for dissecting the genetic control of phenotypic variation in interspecific hybrid populations and manipulating interspecific introgressions in crop improvement.
This Research Topic aims to publish peer-reviewed research to interspecific hybridization and its consequences, both fundamental and applied. While such work is prominent in plants, consideration will also be given to salient work in other taxa. A key threshold for publication will be the extent to which findings are of cross-cutting interest and importance, i.e. not only to those working on the target taxon but to a wide range of biological scientists.