Bi sexual kiwifruit flowers

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72
42
Katikati
Experience
Commercial
1M was invested in 2018by us tax payers for a 3 year research study into discovering why kiwifruit flowers aren't self pollinating. I emailed the lead researcher asking if I ought to sell soon.
Below quoted reply.
The current research stage (and what was funded in our MBIE research grant) is very much about basic science. We are trying understand what is causing pollen to abort in female kiwifruit flowers using molecular techniques. We have an interesting story emerging around the molecular signalling that has to happen between the young pollen and the tissue that surrounds it. In terms of generating male-fertile females, our research has given us some ideas around what we could test to stop pollen abortion. But these still need to be tested. If successful, we would envision the treatment initially being used on a small scale for breeding purposes (for example, crossing two female plants), as they will be quite time intensive and only produce a few fruits. So short term (next 10 years) our main aim is to improve kiwifruit breeding.
 

Dave Black

Gold
BOP Club
3,080
3,712
Bay of Plenty
Experience
Retired
It's technically an interesting question, and not just applicable to kiwifruit. Being commercially useful is another matter. There are many other attributes of fruit that are required for success in market so I'm not sure I'd be holding my breath about this one.
 


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