This is because Ling Xiao knows that the bananas that humans like to eat are not fruits that have evolved naturally, but are fruits that human researchers have specially selected from many kinds of plants and specially hybridized them. After this kind of targeted cultivation,
Bananas are very popular among humans.
Because this fruit is fragrant, sweet and soft when ripe, it can be said that it is liked by most people of all ages, men, women and children. Bananas are not only a delicious fruit in the eyes of most people, they are even considered a delicious fruit in some parts of Africa.
The staple food of mankind has fed many people, so it can be seen that bananas have contributed a lot.
The reason why sweet bananas are so delicious is that they are soft, sweet and not greasy. They do not have any seeds. You can eat them in one go after peeling off the skin. There is no need to spit out the seeds in the middle. It is convenient and quick.
, and it’s quite delicious. Generally speaking, people don’t dislike this kind of fruit, and many foods using bananas as ingredients have been developed.
Bananas are seedless, which is a good thing for diners, because they save trouble and effort when eating, and they are definitely one of the most convenient fruits to eat. But for the banana plant itself, it is another matter.
Of course, saying bananas are seedless is not entirely correct. In fact, there is still a little bit of seeds left. The only part that can be regarded as seeds is some brown stuff in the pulp. That means the seeds have degenerated, are not mature at all, and are completely lost.
function of reproduction.
So without banana seeds, there are no seeds that can allow bananas to reproduce in large quantities. It is said that this fruit cannot reproduce in large quantities. So how do researchers allow bananas to be planted in tropical areas around the world?
Because researchers are very smart and use a form of vegetative reproduction. Each new banana tree that grows is a plant cultivated from part of an old banana tree. Bananas all over the world are considered clones of one banana.
Their genes are exactly the same.
In this case, people will eat bananas that taste almost the same, and it has become one of many people's favorite fruits. However, because seeds cannot be used to reproduce, bananas have been reproduced in a cloning-like manner. The singleness of the gene will eventually lead to
A question arises: Will this kind of banana lead to genocide?
Because bananas in the whole world have the same gene, once a banana encounters a natural enemy, all banana trees will be unable to resist this natural enemy, and the worst outcome will be total destruction. This is not alarmist. In the banana world, there has been
Happened once.
The banana that humans eat is actually called Huajiao. Before it, there was a banana variety that was bigger, sweeter and more fragrant. Big Mac is the banana that people eat. It is said to be even more delicious than the current Huajiao. Its fragrance is like
Now the banana flavor smells just as good.
But who knows that Big Mac only has one gene? After a Big Mac was destroyed by fungi, humans were unable to defeat the fungus. Bananas around the world were eventually destroyed by fungi, and even the land where Big Mac was originally planted still had those fungi.
, probably not able to grow Big Mac for decades.
After Big Mac was exterminated, fortunately, there was a backup variety, Huajiao. Although it was not as big as Big Mac, not sweet enough, and not fragrant enough, it was still better than no banana at all. So Huajiao replaced Big Mac and was planted
There is plenty of room for planting.
But the Big Mike incident has sounded the alarm for people, because banana cultivation uses asexual reproduction, which is cloning again and again. This is a road of no return, because they all have the same genes, and no one can escape if they get sick.
Lose.
Although the development of science and technology has allowed people to achieve victory again and again in the battle against bacteria, fungi, and viruses, it does not mean that they can always win in the war against bacteria and fungi. In many cases, humans have also been defeated many times.
In fact, while human science continues to advance, bacteria, viruses, fungi and other organisms are also constantly evolving. For example, superbugs have emerged, African malaria has become resistant to drugs, and even viruses are mutating.
In the battle between Big Mac and fungi, humans also participated in the war, but failed to save Big Mac in the end. This was a case of failure, and it was simply a warning given by nature to humans.
The same Chinese banana will one day face the same situation as Big Mike. A fungus and other organisms that it cannot resist will make the Chinese banana completely extinct because it has no genetic diversity. If one plant of the Chinese banana is infected and destroyed, then all the Chinese bananas around the world will be wiped out.
Bananas can be infected, and the only way now is to strictly guard against it.
Well! After Ling Xiao found out about it, he felt one thing: We really need to pay attention to various plants, and animals need some genetic diversity, so the pairs of animals in Noah's Ark actually cannot guarantee that the animals will be able to reproduce, right? Because
If the gene is too single, it is likely to be eliminated.
In addition, don’t engage in all asexual reproduction, let’s engage in some sexual reproduction! This will ensure the variability of genes, because a certain gene will ensure that that species can reproduce.
It may seem that genes are not perfect, but when a problem occurs, a species will not be completely wiped out. Genetic diversity will allow some organisms to escape disaster when disaster strikes.
Just like rice, many rice species will appear lodging after heavy winds and rains, eventually leading to large-scale production losses. Some rice species will fail, while others will survive and pass on their lodging-resistant genes to become a lodging-resistant variety. This is also a gene
The benefits of diversity always have one advantage showing through.
In addition to the extinction of the Big Mac banana, there was also an incident where a country had grown one variety of potatoes for many years, and eventually the potato production stopped, causing many people who relied on potatoes as their staple food to starve to death.
In fact, potatoes also have a problem. In many cases, when potatoes are grown, they do not use sexually propagated seeds. In fact, how do people grow potatoes?
Generally, potato tubers need to be cut into several pieces, and the buds on the small tubers are planted, and new potato plants will come out. If you think about it this way, the reproduction of potatoes is very similar to that of bananas, so there will be an outbreak.
If you get sick, the potatoes will be completely destroyed, and people will starve to death.
After recalling the evolution history of bananas, Ling Xiao was a little confused when she saw banana-like trees, because she didn't know if she could eat them? Wild bananas that have not been cultivated in the mortal world are not delicious at all, because the fruits are full of
seed.
Even if you taste the fruit after it is ripe, you will not like it very much. If you have eaten Chinese bananas, you will find that there is very little meat and most of them are seeds. Basically, you have no idea of eating wild bananas.
The reason why wild bananas are like this is for the reproduction of their own species. In fact, delicious fruits are the result of plants evolving for the reproduction of the race. Many animals that eat the fruits are because the pulp is delicious, sweet, and nutritious.
They will eat it again and again, and in the process they may eat the seeds.
It’s just that the seeds are protected by the shell and will not be digested. Those animals cannot digest the seeds at all and will pull them out. The seeds can still germinate. The seeds can go as far as the animals walk. Then plants evolve.
The pulp strategy was successful.
This mutually beneficial behavior is conducive to the reproduction of plants. The plants will grow enough delicious fruits to attract animals, so that enough seeds can be taken away from the mother plant, which greatly ensures that the plant population will grow more.
come out.
The same animals will also like to eat more delicious and nutritious fruits, because after eating, the animals of the species will become stronger and have the ability to fight against other species and natural enemies.
In this case, it is a win-win situation. The delicious and nutritious fruits ensure that the animals have more competitiveness. The animal population will have more of the same species and a larger territory, and the seeds of the plants will follow.
further afield.
In this case, it is a win-win situation. Then this plant will naturally make its pulp delicious and become the correct direction of its evolution. This is because it attracts more diners, and the increase in diners means more diners.
Only when the seeds travel far away can the population grow in large numbers.
Then the plants with unpalatable fruits will gradually become less attractive. It is possible that because they are unable to attract more diners, the seeds will grow nearby at most, and their competitiveness will decrease, and they will gradually be eliminated.
This is the survival of the fittest after animals and plants each choose their own evolutionary direction. The correct evolutionary direction allows them to reproduce, while animals and plants that cannot adapt and choose the wrong direction will become extinct. This is natural selection, fitness.
who survive.
As plant organisms, in the direction of evolution, generally in order to reproduce, they naturally hope to have more seeds so that they can live in more places. Maybe they cannot adapt to the new environment and will die halfway. Some seeds may not even wait to germinate.
The opportunity is lost, but as long as a few succeed, it will be fine.
In this situation, Ling Xiao felt that the banana-like plant was not the banana he imagined. He believed that wild bananas would not forcibly produce seedless bananas like humans. How can seedless bananas multiply everywhere? Seedless bananas are completely
Sacrificing the opportunity for the banana plant species to reproduce itself.
After arriving at the place, she went down and found some small animals in that place. Ling Xiao took a look and felt that these plants should be edible, but would they be unable to survive if she picked them in large quantities?
She couldn't let other animals run out of food because of her own whims. After thinking about it, she decided: even if it was delicious, she couldn't pick too much, and it was better not to snatch food from the small animals.
She picked the top one and tried it. After taking a bite, she found that it was not very delicious. It was not that the pulp was not delicious, but because there were too many seeds. If one was not careful, the teeth might break.
What’s delicious?
As expected, it was not a delicious seedless banana. Ling Xiao had no intention of eating it anymore. Of course, she did not think about developing a seedless banana. Obviously, normal bananas have seeds and can reproduce on their own. Instead of
Human intervention is needed.
Maybe every day a gene will mutate and a real banana will appear. Because everything is possible, then there is no need to castrate the banana for your own preferences, or just let it grow like this.
Ling Xiao didn't pick the bananas, and he wasn't disappointed. Although he couldn't eat them, wild bananas were quite good. Looking at the bananas in his hands, he wanted to laugh, because this banana looked like a wild fruit.
To be blunt, if the flesh of today's bananas were more transparent, they would look like fleshy insects. They look a bit like the wild August melon. In fact, I remember that the August melon is also called some
The place is called Wild Banana.
Ling Xiao left here and continued to move forward. He found a lot of good things along the way. What was especially surprising was that he picked up a lot of good things for mortals, such as gems, and they were pure natural gems.
At first she didn't wake up and thought it was that kind of colored glass. But when she realized it was not glass at all, she picked it up and looked at the light. Those unpolished gems had no light, but they were very transparent, not as good as
Waiting to polish it out later to see.
She was thinking about how to polish the gems. Then she thought that she was a monk now, and polishing this would be a piece of cake. She paid attention when looking for other places, and found more gems, each with colorful colors.
All good stuff.
Later, she played around for a while and found that the gems found in the demon world were clearer. Ling Xiao looked at them and felt that the hardness of the gems here was not low. Hey! It's really good. It can also be used as an exchange for money in the future.
thing.
At that time, she had been practicing for a period of time and was just about to relax. She felt that she had a little leisure time. She remembered the headdress she had seen and the queen's phoenix crown that someone had specially made. Her hands were itchy, so she made it specially.
A real gold and silver phoenix crown, once made, it looks really magnificent.
Wow! It is definitely very valuable, but it is also very heavy when you try it. Wearing these things can be said to be carrying dozens of kilograms of stuff on your head. There are also special dresses and special accessories on the body. It doesn’t feel heavy.
It's so light that it almost needs someone to support it to walk. It's not easy to be a noble lady in ancient times.
Later, she made other beautiful ornaments in her free time. She also knew that it was best not to leave too many personal traces when making these things, in order to prevent some people from directly recognizing that they were not products of this planet.
In addition to those gems, Ling Xiao came across a river when she was almost reaching the mountain. She remembered that there might be fish in the river, so she prepared to fish for them. The water in the river was very clear. She squatted down to test the water temperature and found that it was very cold.
You must know that the surrounding temperature is not low at this time, but the river water is obviously much lower. It should be so low after the snow on the mountains melts. I am afraid that there are not many fish because the water temperature is too low.
Ling Xiao saw that there were a lot of pebbles in the river, so she picked them up. But when she got it in her hand, she felt that the pebbles were not ordinary stones, but so-called jade materials.
She began to collect a lot of stones, and after violently rubbing the stones, she found a lot of good white jade, or the kind of suet jade, which made her feel very happy, so she continued to search, removing the stone on the outer skin of the jade while searching.