Designing Future Crops: Genomics-Assisted Breeding Comes of Age

Rajeev K Varshney; Abhishek Bohra; Jianming Yu; Andreas Graner; Qifa Zhang; Mark E Sorrells

doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2021.03.010

Designing Future Crops: Genomics-Assisted Breeding Comes of Age

Trends Plant Sci. 2021 Jun;26(6):631-649. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2021.03.010. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Authors

Rajeev K Varshney¹, Abhishek Bohra², Jianming Yu³, Andreas Graner⁴, Qifa Zhang⁵, Mark E Sorrells⁶

Affiliations

¹ Center of Excellence in Genomics and Systems Biology (CEGSB), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, India; State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, Centre for Crop and Food Innovation, Food Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Crop Improvement Division, ICAR- Indian Institute of Pulses Research (ICAR- IIPR), Kanpur, India.
³ Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA.
⁴ Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crops Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany.
⁵ National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
⁶ Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.

PMID: 33893045
DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2021.03.010

Abstract

Over the past decade, genomics-assisted breeding (GAB) has been instrumental in harnessing the potential of modern genome resources and characterizing and exploiting allelic variation for germplasm enhancement and cultivar development. Sustaining GAB in the future (GAB 2.0) will rely upon a suite of new approaches that fast-track targeted manipulation of allelic variation for creating novel diversity and facilitate their rapid and efficient incorporation in crop improvement programs. Genomic breeding strategies that optimize crop genomes with accumulation of beneficial alleles and purging of deleterious alleles will be indispensable for designing future crops. In coming decades, GAB 2.0 is expected to play a crucial role in breeding more climate-smart crop cultivars with higher nutritional value in a cost-effective and timely manner.

Keywords: alleles; breeding; crop improvement; food security; gene editing; genetic gain; genome; haplotype; phenotype; sequencing.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Crops, Agricultural / genetics
Genome, Plant* / genetics
Genomics
Plant Breeding*