— In contrast to a perception that ex situ collections of germplasm are rarely used, this empirical case study reveals large numbers of germplasm samples distributed by the US National Germplasm System to many types of scientific institutions located in numerous countries around the world. Germplasm distributions outside the United States favor developing over developed countries in several way...

After yield, quality is one of the most important aspects of rice breeding. Preference for rice quality varies among cultures and regions; therefore, rice breeders have to tailor the quality according to the preferences of local consumers. Rice quality assessment requires routine chemical analysis procedures. The advancement of molecular marker technology has revolutionized the strategy in bree...

The selection of desirable genotypes with recessive characteristics, such as self-incompatible plants, is often difficult or even impossible and represents a crucial barrier in accelerating the breeding process. Molecular approaches and selection based on molecular markers can allow breeders to overcome this limitation. The use of self-incompatibility is an alternative in hybrid breeding of oil...

Recently, improving eating quality and processing properties has become one of the most important objectives in japonica rice breeding programs in Korea. This study was carried out to determine the agronomy and physicochemical characteristics of the opaque endosperm rice “S-21-3-8” regenerated from seed-derived callus culture of a rice cultivar, “Ilpum”. S3 generation of opaque endosperm mutant...

Sugarcane (Saccharum L. spp. hybrids) growers depend on breeding programs for new, high-yielding cultivars that have resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses, so breeders continually seek out widely adapted, high yielding germplasm to be used as parents for their programs. Cultivars are sometimes used for this purpose, but their use may be minimized to prevent genetic diversity erosion. The pu...

BACKGROUND Genomic selection, the use of markers across the whole genome, receives increasing amounts of attention and is having more and more impact on breeding programs. Development of statistical and computational methods to estimate breeding values based on markers is a very active area of research. A simulated dataset was analyzed by participants of the QTLMAS XIII workshop, allowing a com...

This chapter deals with breeding aspects of one of the most important crops for food security in the world. Initially it shows how diverse rice is with 22 species, different levels of ploidy and six diversity groups. The choice of parents for crossing, when having such wide genetic diversity available, requires careful characterization and evaluation of the germplasm as well as good knowledge a...