Molecular Tools for Harnessing Cereal Diversity

Cereal species, such as wheat, maize and rice, are important to support the burgeoning world population who depend on these species for food. Starting from the Green Revolution in the 1960s, cereal breeding programs have continuously maintained rates of increased productivity at about 1 to 3% per annum as a result of genetic gain. The development of varieties have in the past years been helped by marker-assisted selection and related marker-based strategies.

Researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia believe that cereal improvement programs could also benefit much from genomics technologies. Their review published by the journal Trends in Plant Science presented several molecular tools for gene discovery and techniques for capturing diversity that can be used in cereal breeding programs. The genomics tools, which include allele mining, transformation, and Targeted Induced Local Lesions In Genomes (TILLING) techniques will further assist plant breeders to develop better crops in a shorter period of time, said the Australian researchers.

Another useful development for cereal researchers are physical maps. Comparative genetics allowed researchers to unravel previously unknown genic regions in their cereal or grass of choice. It also allowed the identification of several agriculturally important genes by determining macro level co-linearity between cereal species.

Subscribers can be access the complete review paper at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2006.12.002.