Crop breeding prospects in the genomics era

Abstract

Grain/cereal crop yields need to be increased in the range of 5 tha-1, to meet the challenge of international food requirements, in the near future. Post-green revolution, conventional plant breeding and related procedures had limited success and grain crop yields have stagnated. The developments in plant genomics offer new means for genetic improvement in crop plants, such as transgenesis and marker aided precise selection of rare recombinants. A strategy, based on the use of existing genomic information on the genetic control of drought tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana, for breeding wheat for high yields and drought tolerance is exemplified. In future plant breeding, the importance of systems approach, involving multidisciplinary contributions, to the understanding of gene structure X environment interactions in respect of the concerned genes at whole plant or crop level is emphasized.