Speed Breeding to Accelerate Crop Improvement
2024
Sajja, S B | Mathew, A | Pasupuleti, P | Radhakrishnan, T | Priyadarshan, P M | Jain, S M | Penna, S | Al-Khayri, J M
Speed breeding through controlled environments as a new technique on the block offers advantages over conventional field-based generation advancement methods. Physiological parameters, especially light, is altered to induce early flowering to reduce generation time. Germinating immature seeds will reduce the generation time further. Several experiments were conducted in the past and are being conducted to develop speed breeding protocols for many crops. Speed breeding protocols were standardized for some crops, for example, chickpea, that allow six to seven generations per year as opposed to two to three earlier. Besides being faster, speed breeding enables savings on resources as advancing generations is cheaper through speed breeding as compared to field experiments. Rapid generation advancement through speed breeding integrated with the advanced techniques of genomic tools, gene editing, early- and high-throughput phenotyping, rapid population development, etc. would boost the genetic analysis and increase the rate of genetic gain in the cultivar development of the crop plants. In the backdrop of increasing food and nutrition demands, gains in crop improvement need to be increased. Speed breeding offers one of the feasible ways to achieve this. The costs involved may pose an obstacle to many enthusiasts, but cheaper alternatives can be explored. Integrating artificial intelligence with speed breeding makes it more valuable in crop improvement programs.
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This bibliographic record has been provided by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
