(no subject)

[gfish]

Awesome CBC headline: Bisexual orchid does 360-degree twist to self-pollinate

Comments

[arjache.livejournal.com]

Wow; orchids must be more resistant to double-recessive diseases than other organisms somehow (or perhaps they simply have less recessives in their genome to start with). It sort of reminds me how a pet shop clerk once told me that gerbils raised in captivity tended to inbreed like crazy but that it never seemed to do them much harm. No idea if that's true or not, but if so, it's possible that these orchids work the same way.

[corivax.livejournal.com]

Hm, plants are very often polyploid (multiple copies of all their genes) - maybe that would provide some buffer against double recessives. It would have to be a quadruple recessive or something. :)