Chapter 2 - Conventional breeding approaches for abiotic stress management in horticultural crops

Abstract

Global warming due to climate change, adverse climatic conditions, and increasing attack of insect/pests has strongly impacted the growth, development, and reproduction of major horticultural crops that have posed a significant threat to global food and nutritional security. In this challenging scenario, advanced conventional breeding approaches are required to expedite the developments of stress-tolerant/resistant varieties with accelerated genetic gains. Also, along with the improved adaptation to adverse climatic conditions, new climate-resilient varieties should also be able to maintain appropriate levels of primary and secondary nutrients as well as enhanced productivity. Another conventional way to improve the production and productivity of major horticultural crops is to implement new cultivation techniques that are highly cost-effective and more efficient. Huge mapping populations such as recombinant inbred lines, near-isogenic lines and double haploids, molecular markers, marker-trait association, and mapping software are the pillars on which the conventional breeding approaches are based. In this chapter, we will be discussing conventional and marker-assisted breeding approaches for abiotic stress management in horticultural crops such as quantitative trait loci mapping, genome-wide association analysis, mutation breeding, and the importance and role of germplasm resources in the breeding of biotic and abiotic stress-tolerant/resistant crops with improved productivity.