Since approximate a century ago, many hybrid crops have been continually developed by crossing two inbred varieties. Owing to heterosis (hybrid vigor) in plants, these hybrids often have superior agricultural performances in yield or disease resistance succeeding their inbred parental lines. Several classical hypotheses have been proposed to explain the genetic causes of heterosis. During recent years, many new genetics and genomics strategies have been developed and used for the identifications of heterotic genes in plants. Heterotic effects of the heterotic loci and molecular functions of the heterotic genes are being investigated in many plants such as rice, maize, sorghum, Arabidopsis and tomato. More and more data and knowledge coming from the molecular studies of heterotic loci and genes will serve as a valuable resource for hybrid breeding by molecular design in future. This review aims to address recent advances in our understanding of the genetic and molecular mechanisms of heterosis in plants. The remaining scientific questions on the molecular basis of heterosis and the potential applications in breeding are also proposed and discussed.

中文翻译：

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探索杂种优势的分子基础

自大约一个世纪前以来，通过杂交两个自交品种不断开发出许多杂交作物。由于植物中的杂种优势（杂种优势），这些杂种继近交亲本后代时通常在产量或抗病性方面具有出色的农业表现。已经提出了几种经典的假设来解释杂种优势的遗传原因。近年来，已经开发了许多新的遗传学和基因组学策略，并将其用于植物中异源基因的鉴定。水稻，玉米，高粱，拟南芥等许多植物正在研究杂种位点的杂种效应和杂种基因的分子功能。和番茄。来自异源基因座和基因的分子研究的越来越多的数据和知识将成为将来通过分子设计进行杂交育种的宝贵资源。这篇综述旨在解决我们对植物杂种优势的遗传和分子机制的理解方面的最新进展。还提出并讨论了杂种优势的分子基础上的其余科学问题及其在育种中的潜在应用。