Conventional Plant Breeding to Modern Biotechnological Approaches in Crop Improvement

Abstract

AbstractIn an era of climate change along with increasing world population, the food security can be ensured by developing climate resilient crop varieties having good nutritional quality. Improved crop varieties can be developed through importation of desirable features which encompass the discrimination of available variability through introduction and selection as primitive method. Conventional breeding methods take more time in developing and delivering crop varieties. In the last two decades, modern biotechnological tools have been developed which led to the better understanding of the genetics of traits and are able to assist conventional breeding to release new cultivars in a shorter span of time. Thus, integrating modern biotechnological tools into the conventional breeding offers new opportunities to breed crop cultivars with enhanced quality, quantity, and tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Besides, locally adapted, several landraces can be developed through plant domestication, farmer’s selection, and self- and cross-pollinated methods. In this chapter, conventional breeding methods, modern and advanced biotechnological tools, viz., plant tissue culture, genetic transformation, hybrids generation, TILLING, RNAi, genome editing, and nano-biotechnology along with their importance will be discussed which would aid in transferring knowledge from scientist to farmer fields.KeywordsPlant breedingPlant tissue cultureMicro-propagationSpeed breedingStress resistance