On Oct. 8, 2024, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding announced they have developed a technique that enables the breeding of genetically identical hybrid plants.

When different varieties of one plant species are crossed with each other, their hybrid offspring are often more robust and grow more quickly than their parents. However, in the next generation this effect disappears again.

New methods make it possible to preserve the advantageous qualities of these kinds of hybrid plants for the long term and to deliberately design plants with four sets of chromosomes rather than two. The techniques should make it easier to breed particularly high-yielding and resistant crops that could feed a growing global population even in times of climate crisis.