the Encephalartos woodii is a type of tree and there is one left this a tyoe of tree that needs a male and female to reproudce. the only tree left is male is ther any way to make a female tree?

4 hours ago, sci-man said:

the Encephalartos woodii is a type of tree and there is one left this a tyoe of tree that needs a male and female to reproudce. the only tree left is male is ther any way to make a female tree?

Unless a female plant is found, E. woodii will never reproduce naturally. This species is known to form fertile hybrids with E. natalensis, and a backcrossing technique can be used: if each offspring is subsequently crossed with E. woodii and the process is then repeated, after several generations, female offspring will be closer to what a female Encephalartos woodii would be like.^[4] However, genetic analysis of chloroplast DNA of F1 hybrids between E. woodii and E. natalensis showed that all chloroplasts are inherited from the female E. natalensis,^[19] indicating that multigenerational hybrid offspring would have E. natalensis chloroplasts and could never be "pure" E. woodii.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalartos_woodii

i read the wiki page and I believe that if we find what makes the  Encephalartos woodii  male we can make a genetically modified female  Encephalartos woodii  and then we can make more and look for more laterr

5 minutes ago, sci-man said:

i read the wiki page and I believe that if we find what makes the  Encephalartos woodii  male we can make a genetically modified female  Encephalartos woodii  and then we can make more and look for more laterr

 

Are you suggesting we artificially engineer a female of the species? The problem with that - as I understand it - is that we would need to know what the genome of a female looked like first. As we don't have a female with which to study its genome, the task is more or less impossible. It doesn't seem necessary though, as we can grow male clones and continue the species from cuttings. 

yeah but then they are just males they might evolve over time but they wont actually reproduce naturally 

38 minutes ago, sci-man said:

yeah but then they are just males they might evolve over time but they wont actually reproduce naturally 

 

I believe (but am not 100% sure) they can't evolve if all new individuals come from cuttings of the parent. They would be genetically identical. 

1 hour ago, hypervalent_iodine said:

 

I believe (but am not 100% sure) they can't evolve if all new individuals come from cuttings of the parent. They would be genetically identical. 

Strictly speaking, the cuttings are the parent and they are the same age as the parent.

1 hour ago, hypervalent_iodine said:

 

I believe (but am not 100% sure) they can't evolve if all new individuals come from cuttings of the parent. They would be genetically identical. 

You are correct. They can be propagated in clonal lines only. Theoretically, mutations may eventually occur and cause some divergence over time . The same happens with cell lines when propagated continuously. However it is a very slow process.

5 hours ago, NimrodTheGoat said:

Unless a female plant is found, E. woodii will never reproduce naturally. This species is known to form fertile hybrids with E. natalensis, and a backcrossing technique can be used: if each offspring is subsequently crossed with E. woodii and the process is then repeated, after several generations, female offspring will be closer to what a female Encephalartos woodii would be like.^[4] However, genetic analysis of chloroplast DNA of F1 hybrids between E. woodii and E. natalensis showed that all chloroplasts are inherited from the female E. natalensis,^[19] indicating that multigenerational hybrid offspring would have E. natalensis chloroplasts and could never be "pure" E. woodii.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encephalartos_woodii

I wonder if you could swap out chloroplasts, like we're doing with our mitochondria in some treatments.