Molecular Breeding as a Foundation for Crop Improvement

Molecular plant breeding has numerous contributions to 21st century crop improvement, says Stephen Moose and Rita Mumm of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and GeneMax Services, USA in their review paper published in the Plant Physiology journal.

Moose and Mumm indicated that during the past two decades, plant biotechnology and associated tools like molecular markers helped in the manipulation of genetic variation and the development of improved cultivars of many crops. They reviewed that molecular plant breeding in particular has increased favorable gene action, expanded the useful genetic diversity for crop improvement, and increased the efficiency of selection. Among the products of molecular plant breeding include the recent Yield-Guard VT Triple transgenic maize hybrids where herbicide tolerance and multiple insect resistance traits are integrated as one genomic locus, and Golden Rice.

The paper, which also reviews historical developments in molecular plant breeding,  is accessible to journal subscribers at http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.108.118232.