Abstract
A diverse set of molecular markers techniques have been developed over the last almost 40 years and used with success for breeding a number of major crops. These have been narrowed down to a few preferred DNA based marker types, and emphasis is now on adapting the technologies to a wide range of crop plants and trees. In this Special Issue, the strength of molecular breeding is revealed through research and review papers that use a combination of molecular markers with other classic breeding techniques to obtain quality improvement of the crop. The constant improvement and maintenance of quality by breeding is crucial and challenged by a changing climate and molecular markers can support the direct introgression of traits into elite breeding lines. All the papers in this Special Issue “Molecular genetics, Genomics, and Biotechnology in Crop Plant Breeding” have attracted significant attention, as can be witnessed by the graphs for each paper on the Journal’s homepage. It is the hope that it will encourage others to use these tools in developing an even wider range of crop plants and trees.
Highlights
The availability of genome sequences for major crop plants have opened up new possibilities for combining genotyping and phenotyping to make crop improvements, while more powerful statistical methods are being developed that allow for the identification of the underlying genes of quantitative traits
Genomic prediction has been successfully used in animal breeding and is increasingly being used in plant breeding [1]
There has been a desire to combine genetics and the knowledge of plant nutrition, but the precise phenotyping that is required of a large number of plants from different environments and growth seasons still represents a major challenge in the improvement of nutrient use efficiency
Summary
The availability of genome sequences for major crop plants have opened up new possibilities for combining genotyping and phenotyping to make crop improvements, while more powerful statistical methods are being developed that allow for the identification of the underlying genes of quantitative traits. Both are used as food and feed, and breeding for quality relates to baking and pasta quality and malting for beer and whisky This Special Issue of Agronomy shows, through a number research papers and reviews, that existing tools are being used and new ones are being developed to assist breeding, in the major crops and in species that attract less attention. Faba bean breeding has attracted growing interest as a protein crop for temperate agroclimatic zones and as a source for plant-based protein food These two recessive genes promote a white flower phenotype, with the seed coat of all-white flowering varieties found to be free of tannins. With the knowledge acquired over decades of agronomic performance and an overview of genetically-modified crops regulated in lignin biosynthesis together with cloned mutant genes, the time has come to adopt new site-directed mutagenic approaches
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