ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses sexually incompatible pairings as a possible means of introducing new genetic information into a species. The objectives of interspecific fusion have thus shifted away from synthesis of novel amphiploid plants toward the introduction of small genetic elements from alien species into ones of practical interest. In more distant interspecific combinations, there has been complete chromo-some elimination for one parent. Interspecific protoplast fusions are a conceptual extension of interspecific sexual crosses to incompatible species. Protoplast fusion begins with firm adhesion between the bounding membranes of adjacent protoplasts. Protoplast fusion and mitosis are possible in heterokaryocytes regardless of the extent of relatedness, and fusions between protoplasts of distantly related plants do not necessarily result in the total elimination of chromosomes from either species. In a more immediate sense, protoplast fusion offers the opportunity of creating hybrid plants between related but sexually incompatible species.
