Future breeding for organic and low-input agriculture: integrating values and modern breeding tools for improving robustness

Organic production and also the attention for plant breeding for organic agriculture is still increasing in Europe. The question often raised is how much does plant breeding for the organic sector differ from modern plant breeding and does a ban on GMO also include refraining from molecular marker assisted selection (MAS)? In this paper I will first elaborate on the values in organic agriculture and it related systems approach as a central focus in organic agriculture and will then discuss in which way molecular marker assisted selection can be of use for plant breeding for organic and low-input agriculture

Molecular breeding for resilience in maize - A review

Abiotic and biotic constraints have widespread yield reducing effects on maize and should receive high priority for maize breeding research. Molecular Breeding offers opportunities for plant breeders to develop cultivars with resilience to such diseases with precision and in less time duration. The term molecular breeding is used to describe several modern breeding strategies, including marker-assisted selection, marker-assisted backcrossing, marker-assisted recurrent selection and genomic selection. Recent advances in maize breeding research have made it possible to identify and map precisely many genes associated with DNA markers which include genes governing resistance to biotic stresses and genes responsible for tolerance to abiotic stresses. Marker assisted selection (MAS) allows monitoring the presence, absence of these genes in breeding populations whereas marker assisted backcross breeding effectively integrates major genes or quantitative trait loci (QTL) with large effect into widely grown adapted varieties. For complex traits where multiple QTLs control the expression, marker assisted recurrent selection (MARS) and genomic selection (GS) are employed to increase precision and to reduce cost of phenotyping and time duration. The biparental mapping populations used in QTL studies in MAS do not readily translate to breeding applications and the statistical methods used to identify target loci and implement MAS have been inadequate for improving polygenic traits controlled by many loci of small effect. Application of GS to breeding populations using high marker densities is emerging as a solution to both of these deficiencies. Hence, molecular breeding approaches offers ample opportunities for developing stress resilient and high-yielding maize cultivars

Science and Society in Dialogue About Marker Assisted Selection

Analysis of a European Union funded biotechnology project on plant genomics and marker assisted selection in Solanaceous crops shows that the organization of a dialogue between science and society to accompany technological innovations in plant breeding faces practical challenges. Semi-structured interviews with project participants and a survey among representatives of consumer and other non-governmental organizations show that the professed commitment to dialogue on science and biotechnology is rather shallow and has had limited application for all involved. Ultimately, other priorities tend to prevail because of high workload. The paper recommends including results from previous debates and input from societal groups in the research design phase (prior to communication), to use appropriate media to disseminate information and to make explicit how societal feedback is used in research, in order to facilitate true dialogue between science and society on biotechnology

Modern approaches for breeding high quality apples with durable resistance to scab, powdery mildew and fire blight

New methods to allow for more precise selection of tree and fruit characters in breeding programmes were developed in recent years. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) is common practice in the ACW apple breeding programme at Wädenswil. Genetic markers can reduce the number of plants and the time required for evaluation, thus new varieties become commercially available sooner. How can this molecular selection method reasonably be applied in an apple breeding programme? Application of phenotypic and molecular selection techniques in the ACW apple breeding programme and results are presented

Molecular Marker-Assisted Selection of Rice Grain Quality on Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) Lines Tolerant to Fe Toxicity Stress

The elite rice has been produced, including iron (Fe) tolerant varieties. To get the appropriate rice lines which superior not only Fe tolerant but also have good grain quality needs to be developed selection system, especially in the use of molecular markers. This study was aimed to develop molecular markers for selection the rice grain quality characters of selected rice lines Fe tolerant. A total of 30 selected Fe tolerant rice lines and 5 parents as control lines were used in this research. Characterization of grain quality were quantitatively using the standard. While for genotyping analysis used 19 molecular markers of STS, SSR, Indel and SNP. This study showed that 14 of 19 markers result polymorphic DNA band (DNA markers). Association analysis of genotype and phenotype showed that 10 of 14 markers were significantly (p < 0.05) related to high quality of rice grain. Among four types of markers used in this study, STS was the most widely associated significantly with four characters of rice quality. The phenotyping analysis showed that the physical grain and palatability quality which obtained from the total mean of 30 rice lines tested tend to nearly with the parent\u27s value as controls lines. The most of these lines were included in the group IV of National Rice Grain Quality Standard (SNI). The amylose content (AC) showed that the texture was varied from firm and dry (high AC) to soft and sticky (low AC). The association results showed that there were significant (p ≤ 0.05) markers related with the biosynthesis starch genes, i.e: SBE1, SS1, SSIIa, GPA, PUL and S3cl which contributed on the character of rice palatability. These selected significant markers could be useful for screening of other population with Fe tolerant and/ or other desired morpho-agronomical traits in support of rice breeding program in Indonesia

Marker assisted breeding and mass selection of wheat composite cross populations

Utilising diverse populations instead of single line varieties is expected to lead to a number of advantages in cereal production. These include reduced epidemics of plant diseases, improved weed competition and better exploitation of soil nutrients, resulting in improved yield stability. However, a number of challenges must be met before diverse wheat populations can be introduced into commercial wheat production: one of these is the development of breeding technologies based on mass selection which enable breeders and farmers to improve specific traits in populations and maintain diversity at the same time

Single nucleotide polymorphisms from Theobroma cacao expressed sequence tags associated with witches' broom disease in cacao

In order to increase the efficiency of cacao tree resistance to witches¿ broom disease, which is caused by Moniliophthora perniciosa (Tricholomataceae), we looked for molecular markers that could help in the selection of resistant cacao genotypes. Among the different markers useful for developing marker-assisted selection, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) constitute the most common type of sequence difference between alleles and can be easily detected by in silico analysis from expressed sequence tag libraries. We report the first detection and analysis of SNPs from cacao-M. perniciosa interaction expressed sequence tags, using bioinformatics. Selection based on analysis of these SNPs should be useful for developing cacao varieties resistant to this devastating disease. (Résumé d'auteur

Economic Analysis of Marker-Assisted Selection in Canola

Replaced with revised version of poster 07/19/11.Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Future trends in Animal Breeding due to new genetic tecnologies

The Darwin theory of evolution by natural selection is based on three principles: (a) variation; (b) inheritance; and (c) natural selection. Here, I take these principles as an excuse to review some topics related to the future research prospects in Animal Breeding. With respect to the first principle I describe two forms of variation different from mutation that are becoming increasingly important: variation in copy number and microRNAs. With respect to the second principle I comment on the possible relevance of non-mendelian inheritance, the so-called epigenetic effects, of which the genomic imprinting is the best characterized in domestic species. Regarding selection principle I emphasize the importance of selection for social traits and how this could contribute to both productivity and animal welfare. Finally, I analyse the impact of molecular biology in Animal Breeding, the achievements and limitations of quantitative trait locus and classical marker-assisted selection and the future of genomic selectio

Application of QTL mapping for early selection on growth and latex yield traits in rubber breeding

The objective of this study was to apply the QTL mapping by Markers-Assisted Selection approach for early selection on growth and latex yield in rubber breeding. The plant material consisted of 196 progenies derived from the F1 family RRIM 600 x PB 217. A genetic linkage map was built for this family with 229 SSR markers (microsatellites) and 198 AFLP markers. Phenotyping was carried out over a 6 years period on a field trial of 5 hectares, with around 2,400 trees measured individual. The two major QTLs were detected repeatedly. The QTL g16-6 was associated with latex yield near the position of marker a131. This QTL explained up to 66% of the phenotypic variance. It was also associated to other traits that were strongly correlated to production such as inorganic phosphorus and dry rubber content (latex diagnostic), as well as plugging index. This finding indicates the existence of one major gene (or a cluster of genes) located on linkage group g16 and involved in the intensity of metabolic activity of latex cell. A second important QTL associated with girth of the trunk (growth) was detected (QTL g3-60) at the position of marker a312. It explained up to 31% of the phenotypic variance. The discovery of the two major QTLs g3-60 and g16-6 suggest that two major genes act as limiting factors in the genetic determinism of the growth in girth during favorable condition and of rubber production in low-intensive tapping systems. These loci should become privileged targets for the identification of key-genes in rubber. The possible use of their neighboring markers for developing Markers-Assisted Selection (MAS) in the short run appears very reasonable. It should contribute to improve the accuracy of the first selection stage which is the weakest point of the rubber clonal selection scheme. (Résumé d'auteur