BioConcepts

heterosisHeterosis (ger.)

• The tendency of cross-breeding to produce an animal or plant with a greater hardiness and capacity for growth than either of the parents; hybrid vigour. (OED 2012)
  category heredity

  1914

  I suggest that instead of the phrases, ‘stimulus of heterozygosis’, ‘heterozygotic stimulation’, ‘the stimulating effects of hybridity’, ‘stimulation due to differences in uniting gametes’, etc. […] the word ‘heterosis’ be adopted. The corresponding adjective ‘heterotic’ may also be useful in such expressions as ‘heterotic effects’.

  Shull, G.H. (1914). Duplicate genes for capsule-form in Bursa bursa-pastoris. Z. indukt. Abstammungs- Vererbungsl. 12, 97-149: 127.

  1982

  heterosis Hybrid vigour: the selective superiority of heterozygotes; the increased vigour resulting from hybridization when measured against either parental stock; heterotic.

  Lincoln, R.J., Boxshall, G.A. & Clark, P.F. (1982). A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics: 113.