Question

In crop plants, the clonal selection used in?
A) Non-flowering species
B) Low seed setting species
C) Apomictic species
D) All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Clonal selection is the process in which improvement is done of asexually propagated crops by selecting the superior clones. They can be isolated from the local variety, introduced variety, and inter-crossed population.

Complete step-by-step answer:
The variety evolved by clonal selection retains all the characteristics of parental clones for several years. Clonally propagated varieties are highly stable because there is no risk of deterioration due to segregation and recombination.
Although seeds are generally the products of fertilization, some flowering plants like species of Asteraceae and grasses, have a different mechanism to produce seeds without fertilization, called apomixis. so apomixis is a type of asexual reproduction that copies sexual reproduction. The species that do not flower can not do sexual reproduction so these species do asexual reproduction. And the clonal selection is also used in these flowers.
Seed is the basis of our agriculture. We cannot raise crops without seeds in the next season. So low seed settling species also use clonal selection and they also reproduce asexually. There are also some species in which fruits develop without fertilization. Such fruits are called parthenocarpic fruits.
Hence the correct answer is option D i.e., all of the above.

Note: Plants derived from tissue culture have been variously referred to as somaclones or calliclones or protoclones and the genetic and epigenetic variations displayed by such plants are simply called somaclonal variations.