Cubing.......a myth.

Here's breeder chimera's take on the subject:

"you ve just discovered the biggest myth (IMNSHO) of marijuana breeding- it is a m
istake that almost EVERYONE makes (including many of the most respected breeders
!).
Backcrossing will not stabilize a strain at all- it is a technique that SHOULD b
e used to reinforce or stabilize a particular trait, but not all of them.
For e.g.- G13 is a clone, which I would bet my life on is not true breeding for
every, or even most traits- this means that it is heterozygous for these traitsit has two alleles (different versions of a gene). No matter how many times you
backcross to it, it will always donate either of the two alleles to the offspri
ng. This problem can be compounded by the fact that the original male used in th
e cross (in this case hashplant) may have donated a third allele to the pool- ki
nda makes things even more difficult!
So what does backcrossing do?
It creates a population that has a great deal of the same genes as the mother cl
one. From this population, if enough plants are grown, individuals can be chosen
that have all the same traits as the mother, for use in creating offspring that
are similar (the same maybe) as the original clone.
Another problem that can arise is this- there are three possibilities for the ex
pression of a monogenic (controlled by one gene pair) trait.
We have dominant, recessive, and co-dominant conditions.
In the dominant condition, genotypically AA or Aa, the plants of these genotypes
will look the same (will have the same phenotype, for that trait).
Recessive- aa will have a phenotype
Co-dominant- Aa- these plants will look different from the AA and the aa.
A perfect example of this is the AB blood types in humans:
Type
Type
Type
Type

A blood is either AA or AO
B blood is either BB or BO
AB blood is ONLY AB
O blood is OO.

In this case there are three alleles (notated A, B, and O respectively).

If the clone has a trait controlled by a co-dominant relationship- i.e. the clon
e is Aa (AB in the blood example) we will never have ALL plants showing the trai
t- here is why:
Suppose the clone mother is Aa- the simplest possibility is that the dad used co
ntributes one of his alleles,
let us say A. That mean the boy being use for the first backcross is either AA o
r Aa. We therefore have two possibilities:
1) If he is AA- we have AA X Aa- 50% of the offspring are AA, 50% are Aa. (you c
an do the punnett square to prove this to yourself).
In this case only 50% of the offspring show the desired phenotype (Aa genotype)!
2) If the boy being used is Aa- we have Aa X Aa (again do the punnett square) th

is gives a typical F2 type segregation- 25% AA, 50% Aa, and 25% aa.
This shows that a co-dominant trait can ONLY have 50% of the offspring showing t
he desired trait (Aa genotype) in a backcross.
If the phenotype is controlled by a dominant condition- see example #1- all 100%
show the desired phenotype, but only 50% will breed true for it.
If the phenotype is controlled by a recessive condition- see example #2- only 25
% will show the desired phenotype, however if used for breeding these will all b
reed true if mated to another aa individual.
Now- if the original dad (hashplant) donates an 'a' allele, we only have the pos
sibilities that the offspring, from which the backcross boy will be chosen, will
be either Aa or aa.
For the Aa boy, see #2.
For the aa boy (an example of a test cross, aa X Aa) we will have:
50% aa offspring (desired phenotype), and 50% Aa offspring.
Do you see what is happening here? Using this method of crossing to an Aa clone
mother, we can NEVER have ALL the offspring showing the desired phenotype! Never
! Never ever ever! Never!! LOL
The ONLY WAY to have all the offspring show a Aa phenotype is to cross an AA ind
ividual with an aa individual- all of the offspring from this union will be the
desired phenotype, with an Aa genotype.
Now, all of that was for a Aa genotype for the desired phenotype. It isn't this
complicated if the trait is AA or aa. I hope this causes every one to re-evaluat
e the importance of multiple backcrosses- it just doesn't work to stabilize the
trait!
Also- that was all for a monogenic trait! What if the trait is controlled by a p
olygenic interaction or an epistatic interaction- it gets EVEN MORE complicated?
AARRGH!!!!
Really, there is no need to do more than 1 backcross. From this one single backc
ross, as long as we know what we are doing, and grow out enough plants to find t
he right genotypes, we can succeed at the goal of eventually stabilizing most, i
f not all of the desired traits.
The confusion arises because we don't think about the underlying biological caus
es of these situations- to really understand this; we all need to understand mei
osis.
We think of math-e.g. 50% G13, 50% hashplant
Next generation 50% G13 x 50% g13hp or (25% G13, 25%HP)
We interpret this as an additive property:
50% G13 + 25% G13 +25% HP = 75% G13 and 25% hashplant
This is unfortunately completely false- the same theory will apply for the so ca
lled 87.%% G13 12.5% HP next generation, and the following 93.25% G13, 6.25% HP
generation; we'd like it to be true as it would make stabilizing traits fairly s
imple, but it JUST DOESN'T work that way. The above is based on a mathematical m
odel, which seems to make sense- but it doesn't- we ignore the biological founda
tion that is really at play.
I hope this was clear, I know it can get confusing, and I may not have explained
it well enough- sorry if that is the case, I'll try to clear up any questions o

r mistakes I may have made.

Have fun everyone while making your truebreeding varieties, but just remember th
at cubing (successive backcrosses) is not the way to do it!
-Chimera"