Biodiversity monitoring is important to identify conservation needs and test the efficacy of management actions. Variants of “abundance” (N) are among the most widely monitored quantities, e.g., (true) abundance, number of occupied sites (distribution, occupancy) or species richness.We propose a sampling-based view of monitoring that clearly acknowledges two sampling processes involved when mon...

cumin (cuminum cyminum l.) is one of the most important cultivable medicinal plants in iran and today, it is the second most popular spice in the world after black pepper. it is essential to know the relationships between yield and its components in cumin breeding programs. therefore, different multivariate statistical analysis was performed on plant characters in cumin to determine the relatio...

Plant breeding represents an evolving technology based largely on genetic principles. Approximately one-half of the increased yields of major crop plants can be attributed to the genetic improvement of the crop. Although the breeding technology and undergirding science are sound, additional information on the biochemical pathways underlying agronomic and quality traits and their genetic control...

The convergence of distinct lineages upon interspecific hybridisation, including when accompanied by increases in ploidy (allopolyploidy), is a driving force in the origin of many plant species. In plant breeding too, both interspecific hybridisation and allopolyploidy are important because they facilitate introgression of alien DNA into breeding lines enabling the introduction of novel charact...

The goal of plant genomics is to understand the genetic and molecular basis of all biological processes in plants that are relevant to the specie. This understanding is fundamental to allow efficient exploitation of plants as biological resources in the development of new cultivars with improved quality and reduced economic and environmental costs. This knowledge is also vital for the developme...

Plant breeding has been very successful in developing improved varieties using conventional tools and methodologies. Nowadays, the availability of genomic tools and resources is leading to a new revolution of plant breeding, as they facilitate the study of the genotype and its relationship with the phenotype, in particular for complex traits. Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies are al...

Department of Biosciences, Molecular Cell Biology of Plants, Goethe University, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany (S.F., A.M., S.S., Y.H., P.P., S.K.M., E.S., K.-D.S.); Cluster of Excellence Frankfurt, Goethe University, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany (S.S., E.S.); Plant Breeding, Wageningen University, Wageningen 6708PB, The Netherlands (M.J.P., A.B.); Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemis...

Plant breeding, the science of crop production, has traditionally developed new cultivars through selective breeding in the spirit of Gregor Mendel (1965) and his peas. Plant breeders hybridize plants that have been selected for some desired trait. By hybridizing desirable plants, desirable alleles—and combinations of alleles—are concentrated, thereby improving the fitness of the offspring. Pla...

Biotechnology in its broadest sense refers to the use of living organisms or their components to provide useful products. This definition can include activities as diverse as making wine, beer, or bread; composting organic materials; releasing parasitic wasps to control insect pests; breeding plants or animals; and producing crops and livestock. In fact, agriculture itself can be considered to ...