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Seed Biotechnology Center at UC Davis
sbc.ucdavis.edu
 
 
 
introduction
plant breeding
genetic engineering
genotyping
induced mutation
marker-assisted breeding
phenomics
proteomics

Plant Breeding

Plant breeding is an ancient art and modern science. From the earliest origins of agriculture, people consciously or subconsciously saved seeds from plants with desirable traits in a natural population* and used them to plant the next generation, a process called selection.

Gradually, after a number of generations of repeated selection, most of the plants in the population will have the desired traits.

For this to be effective, there must be genetic variation
* for the traits being selected. Genetic variation can be obtained by identifying naturally varying types and by making controlled sexual crosses by transferring pollen* from one plant to the pistil* of another to create seeds carrying traits (controlled by genes*) from two or many parents.

The progeny
* seeds can be planted and the resulting plants carrying the desired traits from both parents can be selected. In this manner, the desirable traits from two or more plants can be combined into single plants which can be further selected and propagated*. Plant breeding is the process of repeatedly sampling or generating genetic variation, selecting desirable plants, fixing the traits and propagating plant materials.

Our understanding of genetic inheritance
* at the whole organism and cellular* levels has allowed us to create the vast diversity of foods, feed and fiber crops grown today.

Natural population a population of plants growing in the wild
Genes units of inheritance that are encoded in an organism’s DNA
Genetic variation differences for a trait that are passed from one generation to another
Pistil the female part of a flower that grows into a fruit containing seeds.
Pollen structures that carry the male genetic material and fertilize the egg cells to create embryos inside seeds
Progeny the descendants of a plant
Propagate to reproduce
Genetic inheritance the transfer of traits from female and male parents to their descendants
Cell the fundamental building block of living tissues
 

information presented by SeedQuest and The Seed Biotechnology Center at UC Davis

 


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