Successes and limitations of conventional plant breeding methods

Conventional Plant Breeding, mutagenesis, Maize

1. SUCCESSES AND LIMITATIONS OF CONVENTIONAL PLANT BREEDING APPROACHES IN MAIZE BENJAMIN NARH-MADEY Graduate Research Fellow, Department of Crop Science University of Ghana [email protected]

2. Introduction The goal of conventional plant breeding is to produce crops with improved productivity by altering their genetic constitution. Genetic improvement is driven by natural selection to favor plants that can compete with other plants and weeds for nutrient, light, water etc. (Darwin, 1987). Plant breeders aid the process of natural selection to generate high yielding and more nutritious modern crop varieties.

3. Conventional breeding approaches Goredema-Matongera et al., 2021

4. Need for conventional maize breeding(CMB) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2020.12.006 https://www.quora.com/Why-shouldnt-scientists-intervene-with-natural-selection

5. Conventional Maize Breeding Earlier maize breeders improved productivity through phenotypic selection. Ahmad et al ., 2020

6. Typical conventional breeding pipeline Success demands greater understanding of the complex biology of quantitative traits and a thorough evaluation of the broader genetic base of maize. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-22521-0_5

7. Successes of maize breeding; exploiting wild germplasms Future improvements will require effective utilization of genetic resources including direct selection upon genotype. Chen et al., (2020)

8. Successes of CMB; developing hybrid varieties. Jankowicz-Cieslak et al., 2017

9. Successes of CMB; developing drought tolerant varieties. Liu & Qin, (2021).

10. Limitations of Conventional Maize Breeding Due to; Increasing population Decline in agricultural resources like land and water Decreasing yield curve of staple crops Climate change exceeding 1.5°- 2° by end of 21 st century (IPCC, 2021).

11. Limitations of CMB; key demerits Limited to exchange between closely related species. No surety of any specific gene combinations among crosses generated. Transfer of both desirable and undesirable traits to progeny Time and cost constraints.

12. Limitations of CPB; rice in perspective. http://b4fa.org/bioscience-in-brief/plantbreeding/how-do-you-develop-a-new-crop-variety-by-conventional-breeding-ii/

13. Future prospects; Mixed methods i.e., conventional and molecular breeding methods? Ahmad et al ., 2020

14. What do you think?