Methods Of Plant Breeding

Our requirement for plant breeders to be successful has never been greater. However one views the forecasted numbers for future population growth we will need, in the immediate future, to be feeding, clothing and housing many more people than we do, inadequately, at present. Plant breeding represents the most valuable strategy in increasing our productivity in a way that is sustainable and environmentally sensitive. Plant breeding can rightly be considered as one of the oldest multidisciplin ary subjects that is known to humans. It was practised by people who first started to carry out a settled form of agriculture. The art, as it must have been at that stage, was applied without any formal underlying framework, but achieved dramatic results, as witnessed by the forms of cultivated plants we have today. We are now learning how to apply successfully the results of yet imperfect scientific knowledge. This knowledge is, however, rapidly develop ing, particularly in areas of tissue culture, biotechnology and molecular biology. Plant breeding's inherent multifaceted nature means that alongside obvious subject areas like genetics we also need to consider areas such as: statistics, physiology, plant pathology, entomology, biochemistry, weed science, quality, seed characteristics, reproductive biology, trial design, se lection and computing.

The role of plant breeding; The genetic and cytogenetic basis of plant breeding; Heterosis; Mode of reproduction in relation to breeding methods; Techniques in selfing and crossing; The pure-line method of breeding naturally self-pollinated plants; Hybridization as a method of improving self-fertilized plants; The backcross method of plant breeding; Breeding for disease and insect resistance; Special techniques; Inheritance in small grains and flax; Cotton and sorghum breeding; Development of methods of corn breeding; Inheritance in maize; Forage-crop improvement; Breeding other cross-pollinated plants; Seed production; Some commonly used measures of type and variability; Correlation and regression in relation to plant breeding; Chi-squre testes; Field-plot technique; Experimental designs and statistical methods for simple plant-breeding experiments; Heritability.

This volume describes breeding methods for the development of biparental and multiparental mapping populations. Chapters detail lab protocols for high-throughput isolation of nucleic acids and metabolites, high performing genotyping approaches, mapping strategies for QTLs, mutation identifications, computational, bioinformatic pipelines, tissue culture-based and transformation methods for androgenesis, ploidy modification, and RNA interference. Additional chapters highlight recent developed genome editing protocols including CRISPR and TALEN methods and methodologies for in-field/in-soil plant phenotyping. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and cutting-edge, Crop Breeding: Genetic Improvement Methods aims to ensure successful results in the further study of this vital field.

Plant phenotyping is the thorough assessment of plant traits such as growth, development, adaptation, yield, quality, tolerance, resistance, architecture, and the basic measurement of individual quantitative parameters that form the basis for understanding of traits. Genetic approaches to understand plant growth and development have always benefitted from phenotyping techniques that are simple, rapid and measurable in units. The forward genetics approach is all about understanding the trait inheritance using the phenotypic data and in most cases it is the mutant phenotypes that formed the basis for understanding of gene functions. With rapid advancement of genotyping techniques, high throughput genotyping has become a reality at costs people never imagined to be that low, but the phenotypic methods did not receive same attention. However, without quality phenotyping data the genotyping data cannot be effectively put to use in plant improvement. Therefore efforts are underway to develop high-throughput phenotyping methods in plants to keep pace with revolutionary advancement in genotyping techniques to enhance the efficiency of crop improvement programs. Keeping this in mind, we described in this book the best phenomic tools available for trait improvement in some of the world’s most important crop plants.

It further describes the evolution of crop species.

Plants have been successfully selectively bred for thousands of years, culminating in incredible yields, quality, resistance and so on that we see in our modern day crops and ornamental plants. In recent years the techniques used have been rapidly advanced and refined to include molecular, cell and genetic techniques. An Introduction to Plant Breeding provides comprehensive coverage of the whole area of plant breeding. Covering modes of reproduction in plants, breeding objectives and schemes, genetics, predictions, selection, alternative techniques and practical considerations. Each chapter is carefully laid out in a student friendly way and includes questions for the reader. The book is essential reading for all those studying, teaching and researching plant breeding.

Assists policymakers in evaluating the appropriate scientific methods for detecting unintended changes in food and assessing the potential for adverse health effects from genetically modified products. In this book, the committee recommended that greater scrutiny should be given to foods containing new compounds or unusual amounts of naturally occurring substances, regardless of the method used to create them. The book offers a framework to guide federal agencies in selecting the route of safety assessment. It identifies and recommends several pre- and post-market approaches to guide the assessment of unintended compositional changes that could result from genetically modified foods and research avenues to fill the knowledge gaps.