Chapter 577 Mr. Mendel, I’m sorry
“20 years?!”
Josef suddenly had a dark look on his face. In 20 years' time, France and Britain will have already decided the winner. What's the point of asking for your beets then?
He immediately stretched out three fingers.
Archad waved his hand and said seriously:
"Your Highness, I am confident that it really won't take 30 years to..."
"No, three years ." Joseph stared at him and said, "I will give you three years and all the support you need, and give me a new beet variety!"
"This..." Archard looked embarrassed. , "Your Highness, maybe you are not familiar with breeding technology. This requires a lot of attempts and takes a very long time. Even if you give me 50 acres of experimental land and ample funds, three years will definitely not be enough."< br>
As he spoke, he looked to Brisson, the master of biology, for help.
The latter nodded, coughed slightly and said:
"Your Highness, even if Mr. Archard is very lucky and high-yielding sugar beet seedlings appear in the first year, at least 8 to 10 generations of breeding will be needed to fix their excellent properties, or even more. During this period, traits may be lost, and you have to start all over again.
“So, I think 20 years is indeed a more reasonable number. "
"Wait," Joseph was a little surprised when he heard this, "You mean, it takes 10 generations of breeding to fix the traits? ”
“Indeed, Your Highness. ”
“No, you group seedlings with different traits, and after crossing, record the genetic characteristics of the father and mother. Estimate the group of genetic factors that the offspring may obtain, then cultivate them separately, observe the traits, and continue cross-breeding. Even if recessive genes are considered, it will be clear in two or three generations at most whether the required genetic characteristics have been obtained..."
As Joseph spoke, he felt that the expressions of the several biologists in front of him were wrong, as if they had just been stoned. It felt as if a block had hit his head.
He felt nervous. Mendel seemed not to have been born yet, and the theory of hybrid inheritance was nowhere to be seen. No wonder it was so difficult for them to breed a new variety.
< br>Seeing him stop, Brisson asked tentatively:
"Your Highness, what is the 'heredity' you just mentioned? ”
Archad listened more carefully and asked more questions:
"There are also 'genetic factors' and 'recessive genes'. What does this mean?"
Joseph took a deep breath, looked up at the sky, made the sign of the cross on his chest, and skillfully began to "perform" ":
"Thank God for the revelation, these are all inspirations given by the Lord."
When Archad and the others also made the sign of the cross, he continued:
"The so-called 'heredity' means that parents will mix their characteristics and pass them on to their offspring. On the other hand, all characteristics of offspring must come from their parents."
Acha De lowered his head to digest for a while, and immediately raised an objection: "Your Highness, but white beets and yellow beets will breed red beets..."
"Yes, so this involves the 'recessive gene' '"
Joseph simply picked up a pen and paper, asked the three biologists to sit around him, began to recall the middle school biology course, and secretly apologized to Mr. Mendel.
“This represents genetic factors, which should actually be called chromosomes. However, that is more troublesome to say, so let’s just talk about genetic factors.
“The genetic factors of all living things They all come from half of each parent, and any traits displayed by organisms are determined by genetic factors.
"And some genetic traits will contradict each other. For example..."
He pointed to Eman who was standing aside: "Whether a person has double eyelids or single eyelids, he cannot have both single and double eyelids." When the parents each give When he has half the single eyelid factor, he must have single eyelids. On the contrary, it is double eyelids.
“But if one of the parents gives him half of the single and the other half of the double, it depends on which gene is the dominant gene and which is the recessive gene.
“Let me tell you the answer directly, double eyelids are a dominant gene. So in the above situation, the child must have double eyelids. Because explicit expressions of specializations are implicit, but implicit ones are not. ”
He looked around at the few people who had confused and suspicious faces, and patiently introduced the basic concepts of biological inheritance until it got dark, and finally talked about the issue of dominant and recessive genes.
The youngest Archard has a stronger ability to accept new things. He suddenly clapped his hands and said excitedly:
“I understand, Your Highness! So the red color is a recessive gene in beet and will be masked by the white or yellow gene.
“If white and yellow beets carry half of the red gene, and the red gene happens to be passed on to the offspring during crossbreeding, then red beets will grow! And this also explains why red beets appear. The probability is the lowest!”
“You understand it completely”
At this time, both Brisson and Bosque restrained their doubtful thoughts. They used His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's theory in their minds to solve the problems they had encountered before, and found that many of them had been explained.
It is very possible that these "genes" and "tacit" knowledge are not the imagination of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!
Archad continued to draw inferences: "So, when I need the yellow trait, I can't just cross two yellow beets, because they may carry recessive genes. According to probability, I have to group the offspring into ...Wait, I need to calculate..."
He picked up a pen and paper and began to write and draw, muttering: "No wonder it was so difficult to fix traits in the past. It turns out that recessive genes were mixed in... ..."
He quickly calculated the results and looked up at Joseph, his eyes full of excitement: "Your Highness, with your theoretical assistance, maybe within three years we can really cultivate a plant with a sugar content of 12 % beet varieties!”
Joseph nodded happily: “It’s too late, let’s go have dinner first. I’ll talk to you about the ‘Law of Separation’ and ‘Law of Free Combination’ tomorrow. It will be more helpful for you to breed new varieties”
…
A week later.
After a full day of studying genetics, Archard left the Tuileries Palace tired and excited.
What also excited him was that Dean Leroy personally came to inform him in the morning, saying that based on the re-evaluation of the talent committee, he would be officially invited, and the talent level was D level.
You know, among imported talents who have never made any academic contributions, D level is basically the highest level.
He was about to board the carriage assigned to him by the Talent Committee when he saw his fellow countryman August G. K. Bach trotting towards him waving.
"Why are you here?" He bowed briefly and asked, "Would you like to take my car back?"
Baqi hesitated for a long time, and finally said with a grimace: " I think you should change to a hotel.”
“What happened?”
“Actually, Miss Marianne’s brother left you at the hotel. An invitation. His sister is getting engaged next week..."
(End of this chapter)