Cisgenesis and Plant Breeding: A Review

Abstract

AbstractPlant breeding is the process of selecting plants with the most desirable qualities to produce offspring that inherit those desired traits. Genetic crossing, selection for natural or artificial mutations, and transgenesis are generally the main techniques of plant breeding. In conventional plant breeding techniques (genetic crossing and natural or artificial mutation selection), new beneficial alleles are introduced from crossable species. However, these techniques have limitations due to certain obstacles, in particular the linkage drag in conventional breeding and, a low probability of obtaining a specific desired mutant for the induced mutations. Furthermore, the process of transgenic breeding manipulates plant genomes by inserting genes from another plant species. Natural barriers are not respected. On the other hand, cisgenesis is a promising selection technique because it respects species barriers: it refers to the transfer of one or more genes from either the host species itself or from a close relative. It accelerates the selection process while avoiding linkage drag and improves the use of existing alleles.KeywordsPlant breedingCisgenesisTransgenesisModern biotechnology