Every once in a while, an apple variety will randomly mutate and create a new sport. A sport shares most of the traits of the original variety, but not quite all of them. If a sport’s new trait happens to be redder skin or an earlier or later ripening period, it can be economically advantageous for growers.But what caused the apple to change? What genetic or developmental process led to Autumn Gala, for example, a late-ripening sport that appeared on a standard Gala tree's branch at Catoctin Mountain Orchard in Maryland? And can the biological mechanisms behind such a change be exploited?
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