Food production has evolved from gathering food from the wild to cultivating and selecting wild plants, leading to modern-day plant breeding. Plant breeding is the art and science of improving the heredity of plants for human benefit. Modern plant breeders are scientists who work to make food, fiber, forage, and industrial crops more productive and nutritious.
Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are closely related to cultivated crops and other closely related wild species that have been integrated into recent agriculture. Pre-breeding aims to identify and isolate desirable genetic traits, such as disease resistance, from unadapted material like CWRs. Plant breeding dates back to the beginnings of agriculture, but scientific plant breeding began in the early 20th century. Access to a broad range of genebank resources is essential for breeders to adapt crops to extreme conditions predicted under climate change.
A crop wild relative is a wild plant species that is closely related to a domesticated plant or congener. Wild species can be utilized in modern plant breeding through detection and transfer of useful wild alleles via interspecific and wide hybridization. However, breeders of field crops prefer to use “prebred” lines containing desirable wild traits in domesticated plants.
Pre-breeding involves making crosses between wild and domesticated species and crossing offspring again with domesticated varieties numerous times. Understanding the adaptive strategy simplifies crop improvement by allowing breeders to introgress new traits through traditional breeding.
📹 How seed breeding works
Ever heard of a pluot? That’s a cross between a plum and an apricot. How about a tangelo? That’s a cross between an tangerine …
What plants are true breeding?
The process of true breeding involves crossing a tall, purple plant with the genotype PPTT to itself or another plant of the same genotype. This results in offspring that match the parents’ phenotype, exhibiting the same purple and tall characteristics as the parents.
What is a wild-type plant?
Wild type (WT) refers to the typical form of a species as it occurs in nature, produced by a non-standard “mutant” allele. Advancements in genetic mapping technologies have led to a better understanding of how mutations occur and interact with other genes to alter phenotype. Most gene loci exist in various allelic forms, which vary in frequency throughout a species’ geographic range. A uniform wild type does not exist, but the most prevalent allele is considered wild type.
The concept of wild type is useful in experimental organisms like fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster, where standard phenotypes for features such as eye color or wing shape can be altered by specific mutations that produce distinctive phenotypes. Wild-type alleles are indicated with a “+” superscript, and manipulation of these genes has led to the current understanding of how organisms form and how traits mutate within a population. Research involving the manipulation of wild-type alleles has applications in many fields, including fighting disease and commercial food production.
The genetic sequence for wild-type versus “mutant” phenotypes and how these genes interact in expression is the subject of much research. Better understanding of these processes is hoped to bring about methods for preventing and curing incurable diseases, such as herpes virus infection. Research is also being done to manipulate certain wild-type traits in viruses to develop new vaccines, potentially leading to new ways to combat deadly viruses like Ebola virus and HIV.
Research using wild-type mutations is also being done to establish how viruses transition between species to identify harmful viruses with the potential to infect humans.
What are true breeding plants called?
The correct option is D homozygous, which produces offspring of the same kind. A true breeding plant (pure line) is defined as a plant that possesses homozygous genes for a given character and consistently produces true offspring that manifest the same character.
What is the title of a plant breeder?
Plant breeders utilize genetic principles to develop and enhance crop varieties through breeding studies. They enhance traits like yield, size, quality, maturity, and resistance to pests. They select desirable plants for crossing through methods like inbreeding, crossbreeding, backcrossing, outcrossing, mutating, or interspecific hybridization and selection. A written examination is required, but a doctorate degree and three years of experience are not required.
Why Plant Breeding?
Plant breeding is a crucial field that aims to modify and improve plant species to meet human needs and wants. It is essential for our survival and sustainable agricultural use, as it helps develop resistance to diseases, pests, drought, and temperature extremes, and improves quality factors that positively impact people worldwide. Plant breeding also helps adapt crops to new locations, improving food security and supporting local and regional food systems. Plant breeders also serve as a vital link between farmers and consumers, developing traits that make farming easier and more efficient, and increase consumer satisfaction with the resulting product.
Plant breeding became an academic discipline about 100 years ago, following the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws. It has been studied and practiced in various locations, including governments, universities, private sector seed companies, and hobbyists and gardeners. The University of Wisconsin offers formal training in plant breeding and plant genetics since 1968, with membership from agronomy, biochemistry, botany, forest and wildlife ecology, genetics, horticulture, plant pathology, and statistics. Research areas include biochemical and molecular genetics, biometry, quantitative genetics, cytogenetics and cytology, genetics, and plant breeding.
What is considered a wild plant?
Wild plants and fungi are those that naturally grow in ecosystems without human intervention. However, this definition has ambiguities due to the increasing difficulty in defining a ‘natural’ environment due to human activity. Additionally, the practical consequences of being considered wild include sometimes giving more conservation importance to wild plants and animals than non-wild ones. Therefore, it is unclear whether an organism or environment should be described as wild.
What are the two types of plant breeding?
Plant breeding processes include inbreeding, backcrossing, mutation breeding, hybrid breeding, and genetic engineering. Gregor Mendel, considered the “father of genetics”, developed inheritance laws through plant hybridization experiments. Genetics has been instrumental in enhancing crop production through plant breeding. Genetic modification involves adding or degrading genes to produce desirable phenotypes. Transgenic plants are those resulting from gene addition, while cisgenic plants are those using modified genes to control their native promoter.
Genetic modification can sometimes produce plants with specific traits faster than classical breeding, as the majority of the plant’s genome remains unchanged. Gregor Mendel is considered the “father of genetics” in this field.
What are pure breeding plants?
True-breeding or pure breeding plants are genetically identical to the character(s) being investigated, resulting in offspring with the same traits. They undergo self-fertilization for several generations, ensuring their traits remain unchanged. Pure breeds do not show variations and transmit the same traits for several generations upon self-pollination. Cross-pollination typically does not produce pure breeds, but may allow for the expression of new or suppressed traits in offspring.
What do you mean by plant breeder?
Plant breeders are genetic engineers who use various breeding techniques to improve crops. Their main objective is to improve crops, with most breeding objectives remaining similar to earlier times. ScienceDirect uses cookies and has copyright © 2024 Elsevier B. V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
What is plant breeding also known as?
Plant breeding is a scientific process that involves the creation of new plant varieties. This process is also known as cultivar development, crop improvement, and seed improvement.
What is an example of plant breeding?
The crossing of a high-yielding pea with a mildew-resistant one results in progeny, which are then crossed to their high-yielding parent.
📹 Kale, Cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts Are the Same Species
Not to deter you from eating your vegetables, but what if we told you that certain parts of your salads, like kale, broccoli, and …
i did a botany minicomic about food a few years ago and covered this and the berry thing y’all mentioned in the article about poorly named things. Botany is to cool and good and I wish more people understood just how fascinating plants can be. thank you for sharing. cool suggestion could be on plant movement and how; like the shy fern (momosa pudica), trapping plants or when trees more their leaves before a storm
Good that in German all versions of this species have remnants of the word Kohl for Cabbage in there somehow… Cabbage – Kohl (red or white) Kale – Grünkohl – green cabbage Pointed Cabbage – Spitzkohl Cauliflower – Blumenkohl – flower cabbage Broccoli – Broccoli, but it sounds like BroKOHLi Kohlrabi – cabbage turnip Brussel sprouts – Rosenkohl – rose cabbage Only exception: Savoy cabbage – mostly shortened to Wirsing (also long form Wirsingkohl)
OMG! Having graduated with a botanist degree, I had a chance to work with brassica in the tissue culture lab in college. I’m a programmer now, bu being a home Gardener for the last 20 years, I’ve been telling my friends about this fact all my life! Is one of my favorite tidbits to share with other gardeners.
Cauliflower, I can use it as rice, cous cous and mashed potato substitutes. Very versatile and very edible. Cabbage, Kale and Broccoli all produce a high fodmap reaction that’s tough on my gut. Although I can use them as ingredients in recipes in small amounts. Brussels sprouts are only eaten once a year at Christmas dinner so I don’t worry about them too much. I do like a bit of sauerkraut though. In fact all breeds are great for fermenting.
As an avid gardener, I knew the brassicas were all basically the same modified plant and I always say “thank you” to all those anonymous breeders of the past when planting food crops. Now if only someone found a way to rid the plants of those little white butterflies….There’s a sci show to make–how the cabbage fly spread around the world with our brassica crops. I cover the plants in row cloth, but it can be a pain in the A** to keep them covered as they grow, need weeding, etc. so sometimes the caterpillars ruin the food after all the hard work.
the entire Brassica genus is an even more incredibly varied array of our aboveground vegetable consumption… with napus, rapa, juncea, and oleracea being the 4 that makes up our dipping mustard, canola/rapeseed oil, several turnips, pickled vegs, a huge portion of our leafy greens that aren’t spinach and beets(both amaranths) or watercress(a nasturtium, cousins of brassica). if you’ve eaten chinese/japanese/korean, it’s highly likely you’ve eaten various kinds of brassica and amaranth, especially of the leafy or …stemmy(?) varieties(like gailan or kohlrabi or the pickled zhacai). my favourite are 2 juncea, the somewhat bitter Chinese mustard green(head mustard) and mizuna(long thin stemmed leafy green for shabu shabu), and a rapa called tatsoi (grown and matured under snow and very sweet)
Incredible stuff! If you think about what Alyssum means and look up the conditions that spawn grain rot such as Ergot (or fungal infection behavior and hysterias) Brassicas may have been the stuff that got humanity through bad winters, perhaps even Ice Ages, considering how food would have been stored. Would it have prevented the Potato Famine? What does it do for stored grains? I’m not sure, but Brassicas are survivors and a great remediation for abused soils. It also explains the rational behind cultivated corn smut- how Nietzhchean!
Another wonderful tidbit first related to me by Alton Brown. Y’all perusal some Food Network lately? 😛 Though I did learn something new! I had no clue that collard greens were Greek. I honestly thought that was a variety cultivated very recently in the American South. It truly is astounding what variety is seen within the brassica. I haven’t met any yet that I don’t like, though I have no illusions that I’ve tried them all. Now here’s a question though: what about something like “ornamental kale” – the stuff you see in a lot of municipal flower beds and so forth? Is it in fact a brassica or is this another case of a somewhat misleading name?
Might be worth touching on what makes it a “species” as opposed to a genus or a family: two lifeforms are said to belong to the same species if they can be bred together and produce fertile offspring. For an illustrative non-example, if you breed a horse with a donkey, you get a sterile mule; the only way to make more mules is to continue breeding horses with donkeys, thus horses and donkeys are at a bare minimum different species. By contrast, any cultivar of brassica oleracia can breed with any other cultivar to produce a fertile hybrid. Get enough of those hybrids together and you can start your own self-sustaining cultivar. That’s how we got broccoflower.
Here’s a weird fact. I am allergic to kale. I am not allergic to anything else in Brassica oleracea. But I am so allergic to kale that my throat burns and closes if I even touch something that has touched kale. If my skin touches it it gets red and itchy and burns and my eyes,nose,throat,and tongue swells. Idk why though.
I wonder if we can get more varieties from this plant. Also, why did we (as humans) stop trying to cultivate new foods? Is it me or is there nothing really recent in the world of food? There are new combinations and hidden gems, but nothing really new. I think buffalo wings are the newest culinary creation.
This is why plant taxonomy is such a headache. Plants, unlike animals, can survive even massive mutations or duplications of their genomes. Which is why they create new varieties and species so easily, with the boundaries between blurred. In contrast, in animals, if even just one gene is altered, most die before or shortly after birth.
Ok wait. If they’re that genetically different as well as physically different, in what sense are they still the same species? One thing that’s true about all dog breeds is that they can all successfully breed with each other, even a Great Dane and a chihuahua. Is that true of a broccoli and a cabbage? If not, like literally in what sense are they the same species?
At least with brassica, it has a large enough genome to make such wide variation possible without any adverse effects. With dogs on the other hand, the vast majority of those two hundred odd breeds has meant their gene pools have been narrowed, resulting in harmful genes being retained, which has been detrimental to the health of so many breeds.
just another example that your concept of ‘species’ is lacking, these plants diverged so much that going by fst distances you could already differentiate different families, not even species, many of them already cant interbreed and in thousand years or two most wont – and thats a feat for a plant. ‘same species’ mmkay boy.