Bringing New Plant Varieties to Market: Plant Breeding and Selection Practices Advance Beneficial Characteristics while Minimizing Unintended Changes

• DOI: 10.2135/cropsci2017.03.0199
• Publication Date: 2017-09-01T15:23:36Z
• Authors: Kevin C. Glenn; Ben Alsop; Erin Bell; Mike Goley; Jonathan Jenkinson; Bing Liu; Cheryl Martin; Wayne Parrott; Chris Souder; Oscar Sparks; William Urquhart; Jason M. Ward; John L. Vicini
• Keywords: Plant Breeding; Genetic Resources; Molecular breeding

Commercial‐scale plant breeding is a complex process in which new crop varieties are continuously being developed to improve yield and agronomic performance over current varieties. A wide array of naturally occurring genetic changes sources characteristics available breeders. During conventional breeding, material exchanged that has the potential beneficially or adversely affect characteristics. For this reason, commercial‐scale breeders have implemented extensive selection practices identify top‐performing candidates with desired while minimizing advancement unintended changes. Selection maize ( Zea mays L.) involve phenotypic assessments thousands candidate lines throughout hundreds different environmental conditions many years. Desirable can also be introduced through modification. genetically modified (GM) crops, molecular analysis used select transformed plants single copy an intact DNA insert without disruption endogenous genes. All while, GM crops go same characterization as conventionally bred crops. Data from both programs presented show similarities between these two processes.