Crop Improvement PLS 386

September 9, 2005

Outline of topics: (pp. 107-137 in text)

I. Conventional plant breeding
II. Methods of breeding
III. Breeding goals
IV. Hybrid corn success story
V. Seed certification process
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 2

Conventional plant breeding

(as opposed to genetic engineering)
•Domestication preceded plant breeding
•Mendel’s work - 1860s ‘laws of inheritance’
•Intentional plant breeding has been practiced
only about 100 years (much less for some
crops)
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 3

Basic steps in conventional plant breeding

1. Determine the breeding objective(s)
2. Assemble genetic variability (raw material)
3. Recombine the variation (cross, hybridize)
4. Select desirable recombinants
5. Evaluate the selections
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 4

Sources of heritable variation for plant

breeders
1. Adapted cultivars (=cultivated variety)
2. Older ‘landraces’
3. Recombinants and elite lines
4. Plant introductions
5. Wild plants
6. Induced mutation
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 5

Limitations of plant breeding

1. Long duration
2. Limited to crossing within species
3. Lower selection efficiency
4. Large segregating populations are needed
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 6

Common breeding methods

(Methods vary depending on crop’s breeding system)

Self-pollinating species:(wheat, soybeans, tomatoes)

1. Mass selection
2. Pedigree selection
3. Backcross breeding
4. Hybrid production
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 7

Common breeding methods

Cross-pollinating species: (corn, squash, fescue)
1. Mass selection
2. Hybrid breeding
(requires ability to inbreed, or self-pollinate)
3. Polycrosses / Synthetic production
4. Clonal selections (vegetatively-propagated)
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 8

Breeding goals
1. Higher yield
2. Photosynthetic efficiency
(light interception, leaf angle, stomatal frequency)
Leaf Area Index =LAI=area of leaf surface per area of soil
3. Growth habit (determinate, dwarf, etc.)
4. Early maturity
5. Improved harvest index
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 9

Harvest index = proportion of crop that is of

economic importance.
In wheat, grain yield usually is the economic
yield: 2 tons of grain, 3 tons of straw
H.I. = 2 tons grain/(2+3)=2/5 or 0.40.
In other words, 40% of the biomass produced
is the harvested part (unless straw is also sold)
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 10

Hybrid corn story:

Before 1930, most farmers grew open-
pollinating (OP) varieties
By the 1940s, double-cross hybrids were more
popular
By early 1960’s single-cross hybrids took
over.
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 11

Hybrid corn story: continued

Figures from book (pp. 122-123)
Overhead from Crop Science article.
 128
112
96
(1.76)

bushels/acre
80
64

48

32
(1.00)
16
(0.02)
0.002
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 12

Breeding goals, continued

6. Yield stability
7. Yield per se vs. yield components
8. Improved quality
9. Pest resistance
10. Lodging resistance / shattering resistance
11. Heat/Drought resistance
12. Winter hardiness
 Crop Improvement PLS 386 p. 12

Seed certification process

Four classes of commercial seed:
1. Breeder seed - plant breeder keeps this
2. Foundation seed - first grow-out of breeder
seed
3. Registered seed - larger fields from
foundation seed
4. Certified seed - produced from foundation
or registered seed. This is sold to producers.