Genetic improvement of agronomic crops through breeding, which typically are marketed as commodities, are grower directed. Breeding objectives principally involve increasing yield, often based on resistance to biotic and non-biotic stress. For example improvement in hybrid maize yields have relied on increasing yield stability under high populations. In horticultural crops, breeding objectives ...

Pear decline is a very important phytoplasma disease that causes considerable quantitative and qualitative losses to this fruit crop. Due to economical importance of pear in Isfahan province, Iran, and the difficulty to determine the occurrence of the disease simply based on symptoms in orchards, a detection method for the phytoplasma causing disease in pears in the region was developed. Since ...

Genomic selection (GS) provides an attractive option for accelerating genetic gain in perennial ryegrass () improvement given the long cycle times of most current breeding programs. The present study used simulation to investigate the level of genetic gain and inbreeding obtained from GS breeding strategies compared with traditional breeding strategies for key traits (persistency, yield, and fl...

Grafting has been utilized to develop horticultural crops increase plant vigor, yield potential, and tolerance various environmental stresses. employs selected rootstocks of the same species or near relatives. Moreover, dwarfing is a desirable feature for intensive cultivation efficient orchard management. However, information on regulatory mechanisms rootstock-induced vigor control remains unc...

Introduction: The corn-breeding program at NDSU has been developing early maturing (6595RM) corn since 1933. We have created ‘EarlyGEM’, a continuous effort to incorporate GEM germplasm into the northern U.S. Corn Belt. Our program is one of the few public programs that can still offer a strong emphasis on germplasm improvement, inbred line development, and training of applied plant breeders. T...