"Adaptation to the Garden"

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by feldon30

That's the kicker. It all sounds very intriguing, but I'm not sure enough research has been done to definitively show that the success of a tomato variety in successive years in a garden can be attributed to anything other than improvements in the gardener's skillset, improvements in the soil, and climatic variation.

In the next few years as at home genetic testing becomes affordable, I think a lot of heirloom tomato mysteries will be solved and the kind of research being mentioned here could be crowdsourced much as the Dwarf Project did to dwarf tomato varieties.

I wish I was as optimistic as you are that home DNA kits will be available soon, but I doubt it, and I don't even think they will help solve problems since it's not the same as gene sequencing, which can do so. I do know a bit about DNA and iding genes and seqencing, etc.

As for me, as a B day present to myself I'm going to participate in theNational Geographic Genome project so I can find out a bit more about my genetic heritage. Western Europe for sure, but we all have some Neanderthal genes lurking in our DNA and I'll also find out if I have any Denisovan genes as well. You send back swabs with your saliva.

Changing topics now, I ran across what I thought was an interesting thread at GW having to do with with adaptation, and for others who might be interested, here it is>

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/l...5825825.html?9

Finally, Feldon, I'm trying desperately to catch up on my reading and posting here and elsewhere but haven't forgotten that I said in a post above that I said I'd get back to you.

Carolyn