Development and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for Plant Breeding

Abstract

For at least the last 10,000 years humans have been selecting plants that performed better for them across a wide range of criteria including fruit size, number of fruit per plant, adaptation to specific environments, resistance to certain pests, and many other characteristics. As the demand for agricultural productivity continues to rise, there is an increasing pressure on plant breeders to develop new varieties that are higher yielding and able to produce in more challenging environments. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the application of molecular genetic methods for assessing the conservation and use of plant genetic resources that provides the new ways for plant breeding, for example, the high-throughput sequencing technology provides the possibility of analysing high numbers of samples over smaller periods of time. Currently, molecular breeding is standard practice in many crops, and a diverse collection of plant genetic resources and these resources remain accessible to breeders is important.This article describes the exploitation of plant genetic resources and modern plant breeding, introduces the application of molecular techniques in plant breeding and perspectives the significant of development and utilization of plant genetic resources for plant breeding.