The Genetic Basis of Self-Incompatibility

The purpose of this chapter is to review the genetic bases of the most important systems of self-incompatibility and to outline mechanisms through which a single locus or, in some cases, a few genes not only control the breeding behavior of the plant which carries them, but also govern the entire genetic structure of the population. No other case is known in nature to provide such a clear example of the modalities through which an important recognition device is inherited, reconstituted at each generation, integrated within the entire species and regulated to maintain outbreeding and heterozygosity.