Madison, Wisconsin
February 16, 2009
Source: Crop
Science
Promoting genetic diversity in
crops is traditional practice for agriculture professionals, and
with today's technology, scientists are able to develop breeding
programs with great care for the security of crops. This is
particularly important due to the numerous risks the world's
food supplies face with the changing climate. Genetic diversity
in a breeding program is essential as an insurance against
unforeseeable changes in the environment and to maintain genetic
progress.
The incorporation of diversity into a breeding program, however,
should be planned carefully. Without taking great care in the
incorporation of diversity into a breeding program, poorly
adapted genotypes may prevent genetic progress and may therefore
have a short-term negative impact on the breeding program. On
the other hand, the use of elite genotypes adapted to the local
conditions could increase diversity while maintaining genetic
gain.
Adapted genotypes can easily be obtained for any environment if
the genotypes are evaluated in the target environment. However,
it is not possible for a breeding program to evaluate every
single candidate genotype. Predicting the performance of a
genotype is difficult due to the multiple breeding objectives
and the many environmental conditions of genotype evaluation.
Therefore, finding adapted elite genotypes is challenging if the
genotypes are not evaluated in the targeted environment.
A recent study conducted at Iowa State University proposed
data-driven methods to group breeding programs likely to be
compatible for germplasm exchange. Specifically, the researchers
characterized the genetic diversity of traits in advanced inbred
lines of barley from 23 public and private barley breeding
programs, which they analyzed to identify mega-targets of
selection (i.e. groups of breeding programs likely to be
compatible for germplasm exchange) among those breeding
programs. Results from this research are published in the
January 2009 issue of the journal Crop Science.
The researchers found that all phenotypic traits had significant
genetic diversity, but only seven of the 20 traits evaluated
showed differences in the amount of diversity among the breeding
programs. Some breeding programs had high levels of diversity
for most traits, while others had low levels of diversity.
The methodology proposed by the authors groups breeding programs
by their performance and by their response to changes in the
environment, resulting in sets of breeding programs with similar
performance and similar adaptations. They call these sets
mega-targets of selection. The authors identified three
mega-targets of selection among the barley breeding programs.
They hypothesize that exchange of germplasm within mega-targets
of selection would produce adapted genotypes with high yields.
Research is ongoing to develop larger data sets to evaluate this
method.
The full article is available for no charge for 30 days
following the date of this summary.
View the abstract at
http://crop.scijournals.org.
http://crop.scijournals.org/content/vol49/issue1/
Crop Science is the flagship journal of the Crop Science
Society of America. Original research is peer-reviewed and
published in this highly cited journal. It also contains invited
review and interpretation articles and perspectives that offer
insight and commentary on recent advances in crop science. For
more information, visit
http://crop.scijournals.org
The Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), founded in 1955, is
an international scientific society comprised of 6,000+ members
with its headquarters in Madison, WI. Members advance the
discipline of crop science by acquiring and disseminating
information about crop breeding and genetics; crop physiology;
crop ecology, management, and quality; seed physiology,
production, and technology; turfgrass science; forage and
grazinglands; genomics, molecular genetics, and biotechnology;
and biomedical and enhanced plants.
CSSA fosters the transfer of knowledge through an array of
programs and services, including publications, meetings, career
services, and science policy initiatives. For more information,
visit www.crops.org |
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