Tuber quality is the subject of great interest among the processing industry and consumers worldwide. Being a polygenic trait, its enhancement requires a systematic understanding of their genetic complexity. Molecular genetics offered valuable solutions to the challenging endeavours of slow genetic gains in conventional potato breeding. With the advent of linkage maps, molecular markers and availability

Potatoes is often considered a drought-sensitive crop and its sustainable production is threatened due to frequent drought episodes. Drought tolerance is a complex trait of increasing importance in potatoes therefore its yield is threatened. The differential response of several physiological and agronomical traits was evaluated in a diverse potatoes panel under contrasting water regimes to identify

Lysine and tryptophan are two essential amino acids and these are deficit in maize grain thus posing the problem of nutritional deficiencies in the consumers. A wide range of deficiency symptoms like cognitive disorder, kwashiorkor disease, reduced appetite, impaired skeleton development, delayed growth and aberrant behaviour are associated with lysine and tryptophan deficiency. These amino acids are

‘Sikkim Primitive’ is a prolific maize landrace with five to nine ears per plant. Though the landrace was discovered in 1960s, loci governing the prolificacy was not identified. Here, a prolific inbred ‘MGUSP101’ developed from ‘Sikkim Primitive’ was crossed with two nonprolific inbreds, namely, HKI1128 and UMI1200. Two F2:3 populations (MGUSP101 × HKI1128 and MGUSP101 × UMI1200) were evaluated at

Wild rice species are expected to possess genes that are potentially useful for rice breeding. Backcross inbred lines (BILs) derived from a cross of a japonica rice ‘Shiokari’ and a progeny line from a cross of a japonica ‘Taichung 65’ and Oryza longistaminata MwM were examined for agronomic traits. Some BILs showed vigorous growth and increased yield relative to ‘Shiokari’. One of such BILs was further

Time- and resource-efficient identification of promising lines is of utmost importance in hybrid breeding. Here, we present a novel approach to evaluate female candidate lines for single-cross hybrids, which saves four to five generations by obtaining general (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effect estimates prior to the introgression of the female lines into a male sterility-inducing cytoplasm

Ascochyta fabae is a fungal pathogen responsible for marked yield losses in spring and winter faba beans worldwide. The aim of this genome-wide association study (GWAS) using 188 diverse winter faba bean inbred lines was to exploit earlier Ascochyta blight resistance studies and to identify new resistance loci. Phenotyping after artificial inoculation under controlled conditions revealed significant

Seed size is an important factor affecting soybean (Glycine max) yield and quality, and the length and width of the pods are significantly related to the seed size. Soybean two-seed pod is a stable pod-setting trait. Based on soybean chromosome segment substitution line (CSSL), QTL-seq method was used to locate the QTL of soybean two-seed pod length (TSPL) and width (TSPW) and to mine the related genes

Recombinant inbred lines (RILs) developed from a cross between rust resistant (FLIP-2004-7L) and susceptible (L-9–12) genotypes were phenotyped against lentil rust at two hot-spot locations for two consecutive years (2017–2018 and 2018–2019) and analysed genetically for molecular map construction. Based on the mean score of both the locations, the RILs were classified into resistant and susceptible

Poinsettia is an economically important ornamental potted plant in which certain bract colour variants are often obtained by mutation breeding. Previously, in poinsettia, we identified Bract1, a GST gene involved in the sequestration and transport of anthocyanins to the vacuole. This gene carries a short, highly mutable 4-bp repeat in its coding region. Loss of one repeat unit leads to a loss of function

The sorghum aphid (Melanaphis sacchari) has emerged as a serious pest for Sorghum bicolor and a major factor limiting its production worldwide. In this study, whole-genome resequencing of resistant and susceptible bulks from a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population was conducted together with transcriptome analysis of the parent to identify genes underlying aphid resistance. In the NGS-based bulked

Buckwheat has open-flower morphology; therefore, isolation is necessary to propagate even in self-pollinating lines. Here, we developed a self-pollinating closed flower breeding line ‘CFK1’ by crossing between closed-flowering individual and self-pollinating breeding line. Progeny analysis suggested that the closed-flowering trait would be dominated by double recessive gene, which we named closed-flowering

Odd-allotetraploid lily, such as ‘Honesty’ (LAAA), is a new type of allotetraploids. However, there has been no report on how to breed odd-allotetraploid lily cultivars so far. According to their genomic composition, such as LAAA, we proposed LA × AAAA and LALA × AAAA would be two ways to breed them since LA lily could produce a small amount of 2n gametes and LALA could produce a large amount of normal

Resistance to acetolactate synthase (ALS) inhibitor herbicides discovered in wild relatives of sorghum was introgressed into cultivated types, but many of the derived lines display interveinal chlorosis at seedling stages. The objectives of this study were to examine the effect of chlorotic phenotype on growth and crop performance with and without herbicide application. Thirty-six chlorotic and normal

This study was performed for a better understanding of genotypic responses of a germplasm of tall fescue to different prolonged drought stresses and exogenously applied salicylic acid (SA) in terms of drought tolerance, postdrought recovery, persistence and root-related traits. Twenty-one diverse tall fescue genotypes were evaluated under three irrigation treatments (IT) (normal, mild and intense drought

FRIZZY PANICLE (FZP) is involved in the development of panicle branching in rice. Herein, a novel mutant fzp-15, demonstrating the sequential rounds of branching and severe defects in SM (spikelet meristem) formation, was identified. Map-based cloning revealed that the abnormal panicle architecture of fzp-15 resulted from an amino acid substitution (Glu (E) to Ala (A)) in the N-terminal ERF domain

Soybean, a short-day plant, has its origin in higher latitudes of China, and its commercial cultivation remained confined to areas >22°N till 1970s due to precocious flowering accompanied with reduced biomass in lower latitudes. This review summarizes the effect of short days on soybean phenology, discovery of a novel long juvenile (LJ) trait, its role in breaking the latitudinal boundary for soybean

Orphan small grain cereals highly contribute to food and nutrition security worldwide, although the genetic and genomic resources for these cereals are far less available compared to major grain cereals. Consequently, there is low progress in their genetic improvement notwithstanding the high nutrient content, diversity, and health benefits of many of them. Therefore, additional efforts are expected

Breeding new and high performing cultivars with market‐preferred traits take more than 10 years in the absence of an integrated pre‐breeding programme. During the early phases of breeding a significant amount of time, space and resources are invested in the selection and genetic advancement stages after initial crosses are performed with parental genotypes. Speed breeding has the potential to reduce

Striga hermonthica, causes up to 100% yield loss in maize production in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Developing Striga‐resistant maize cultivars could be a major component of integrated Striga management strategies. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of maize breeding activities related to Striga resistance and its management. Scientific surveys have revealed that conventional breeding strategies

Ear‐related traits are crucial factors in grain yield, and understanding the genetic analysis of these traits provides important insights into maize breeding. This study derived a F5:6 recombinant inbred line (RIL) mapping population including 201 families from a cross between KA105 and KB020 lines. Genotyping by target sequencing was then used to construct a high‐density genetic map with 2,248 markers

Our study aimed to assess the potential of indices, including grain protein deviation and protein yield, to simultaneously improve grain yield and protein content in triticale. Our analysis of 1.218 triticale genotypes revealed significant genotypic variation and high heritabilities for all traits. We analysed the suitability of the indices for phenotypic selection for both high grain yield and increased

Increasing soybean yield plays a key role in meeting the high demand for protein in Europe and other countries. The aim of this study was to dissect the genetic architecture underlying seed yield, plant height, protein yield and thousand‐seed weight in early‐maturing soybean. To this end, we performed QTL mapping based on 944 RILs derived from a half‐diallel crossing design of five parents. We identified

Phosphorus (P) is essential for plant growth, especially for soybean. P deficiency results in a severe decline of soybean productivity worldwide. Biomass is an important index to measure the tolerance of plants to low P. In this study, SNPs significantly associated with four P deficiency tolerance‐related traits were identified by genome‐wide association study (GWAS) using a natural population comprised

Petal colour is considered as an important trait and major visual signal for insect‐pollinated plants and landscaping. In previous study, we isolated and identified two genes (BnPC1 and BnPC2) that control the orange petal colour (OPC) in rapeseed. To identify the molecular markers linked to the orange petal colour, we constructed a B. napus linkage map with four newly developed simple sequence repeat

The extent of phenotypic variation among Sesame germplasm influences the expression of economic traits and the response to selection. The objective of this study was to determine the variance components, heritability (H2) and association of seed and oil yield‐related traits in Ethiopian sesame germplasm to guide breeding. One hundred sesame germplasm were evaluated under field conditions in two locations

Marker‐assisted selection (MAS) can speed up the plant breeding process and reduce the labour and field costs. The sequence‐characterized amplified region (SCAR) marker allows the elimination of the restriction digestion step. Hence, it is more efficient and reliable than the cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) marker in gel‐based screening. But we still only have CAPS marker for many tomato

Flesh colour is an important trait that affects the nutritional value, consumer preference, and breeder selection of fruits. In this study, we developed an F2 population derived from crossing the parental lines ZXG1555 (pale green flesh) and Cream of Saskatchewan (short for ‘COS’; pale yellow flesh) to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and predict candidate genes that determine flesh colour and

The fibre content (FC) of sugarcane millable stalks is important for both sugar and bioenergy production. Higher FC favours the energy producer while lower FC facilitates the efficient sugar extraction. A molecular marker for FC helps select improved sugarcane cultivars with favourable partitioning of FC for both sugar and energy production industries. A quantitative trait loci (QTL) study was conducted

To evaluate gene effects and heritability of fruit and flower characters in melon, three experiments were performed. In the first experiment, 48 genotypes of different melon groups were planted to choose the monoecious melon. To investigate the sex modification regarding fruit traits, seven parents, including a monoecious type and andromonoecious types, crossed in a full diallel scheme to obtain all

Leaf, stem and stripe rust caused by Puccinia triticina, P. graminis f. sp. tritici and P. striiformis f. sp. tritici, respectively, are common wheat diseases. The deployment of complex rust resistance sources is likely to contribute to their durability. In this study, wheat varieties and experimental plants (F2), with different rust resistance gene combinations, were characterised using molecular

The bean farms in Iran are increasingly suffering from two-spotted spider mite (TSSM) herbivory, which is intensified with the gradual increase in temperature and decrease in relative humidity coinciding with the flowering time in the common bean. Limited genetic variability for resistance to TSSM is a major bottleneck in the development of resistant common beans. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate

Iron is one of the most important micronutrients for crop plants due to its use in important physiological processes such as photosynthesis, mitochondrial respiration, metal homeostasis, and chlorophyll synthesis. Crop plants have adapted different strategies for uptake, transport, accumulation, and storage of iron in tissues and organs which later can be consumed by humans. Estimates indicate that

The multilocular trait is generally considered as a desirable agricultural trait for the high‐yield breeding of Brassica crops and has attracted considerable attention. The siliques of multilocular plants contain more chambers and seeds than those of bilocular rapeseed varieties and, thus, have a higher yield. Furthermore, multilocular plants are precious germplasm resources for the breeding of Brassica

Iranian wheat landrace accessions (IWAs) were collected from country‐wide farm fields and market places in 1935 by a professor at the University of Tehran and shared with University of California at Davis, California. IWAs were further submitted to the genebank of International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico. 2,403 IWAs from CIMMYT’s genebank were assayed by DArT‐seq technology

Leaf colour is an important agronomic trait for studying molecular mechanisms in chlorophyll biosynthesis and chloroplast development. Here, a novel mutant oil yellow leaf 2 (Oy2) with a typical yellow leaf phenotype at the seedling stage was identified from the mutant population derived from the maize inbred line RP125. Compared with wild type, Oy2 mutant displays decreased chlorophyll content, reduced

The meal value of Soybean for monogastric animals is determined partly by sucrose, raffinose and stachyose. Of these, sucrose is desirable, while raffinose and stachyose are indigestible, causing flatulence and abdominal discomfort. The objective of this study was to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling seed sucrose, raffinose, and stachyose in a set of 140 SoyNAM (Nested Association

Soybean seed includes various bioactive substances. Also, they contain a variety of antinutritional factors including lipoxygenase, Kunitz trypsin inhibitor (KTI), lectin, and 7S α' subunit proteins. The genetic removal of these proteins will improve the nutritional value of soybean seed. The objective of this research was to breed new soybean with tetra recessive alleles (lox1lox2lox3/lox1lox2lox

Soil salinity, being world's gravest and increasing environmental threat, limits the growth and development in nearly all crop plants. The experiment was laid out to investigate the tomato local and exotic germplasm for morpho‐physiological and photosynthetic attributes under salinity stress (0 (control), 8 and 12 dS m−1). The phenotype data for morpho‐physiological traits were collected; meanwhile

Flower corolla colour is an important trait for the attraction of pollinators and for the horticultural industry. Gossypium arboreum (L.) accessions from the United States Department of Agriculture germplasm collection frequently show flowers with a yellow coloured corolla. Accession PI 529731 is unique in that the flowers have a red coloured corolla. Genetic characterization of corolla pigmentation

The objective of this work was to characterize and identify among the passion fruit hybrids of the second generation backcross (BC2: BC1 × P. edulis), resistance to passion fruit woodiness disease (CABMV) with desirable agronomic attributes. Ninety‐two progeny of BC2 hybrids were evaluated for severity of the virus in conditions of field, physical and chemical characterization of the fruits and precocity

Simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers play an important role in genetic and molecular breeding programs, especially for non‐model species. We identified SSRs from expressed sequence tags (EST‐SSRs) and whole genome sequences (gSSRs), by analysing the transcriptome and genome of the Mongolian sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides subsp. mongolica) cultivar ‘Sunny’. Using the same number of loci, EST‐SSRs

It was observed that the seedling biomass was correlated with final seed yield in many crops. It is helpful to dissect the genetic architecture of seedling biomass‐related traits for high yield breeding of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). To date, the genetic architecture of seedling biomass‐related traits is still unclear in B. napus. To identify candidate genes associated with high seedling biomass

The use of rutabaga for increasing the level of heterosis in spring canola was investigated. For this, test hybrids were produced by crossing four inbred populations, derived from F2 and BC1 of two rutabaga × spring canola crosses, to their spring canola parent, and were tested in field‐plots for agronomic and seed quality traits. Average mid‐parent heterosis (MPH) in these test hybrid populations

The identification and development of new cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) lines in higher plants are important for the preservation of grain security and the prevention of the homogenisation of hybrid rice. Molecular markers‐assisted selection (MAS) based on CMS‐associated genes or mitochondrial‐specific chimeric sequences are important for rapid and effective breeding of new CMS lines and hybrids

This study aimed to track the inheritance and identify the expressed sequence tag (EST) ‐ simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker (s) associated with the anthocyanin pigments in barnyard millet (Echinochloa spp.). The F1 and F2 generations were developed using the anthocyanin pigmented genotype ACM 331 (purple inflorescence) and three non‐pigmented genotypes, ACM 333, ACM 335 and MA 10 (green inflorescence)

Host plant resistance is an effective means of managing aphid pests in safflower but its genetic basis is not known. In this study, F1 and F6‐recombinant inbred lines (RILs) produced from the CO‐1 × EC‐523368‐2 cross were phenotyped for tolerance to the aphid, Uroleucon compositae based on days‐to‐wilt (DW) after infestation. The F1 plants showed the dominance effect and RILs exhibited quantitative

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is a major source of fibre for the textile industry and naturally coloured cotton fibre does not require the use of synthetic dyes making it an eco‐friendly option for textile production. Coloured cotton cultivars are however associated with lower fibre yields and reduced lint quality. A greater understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying fibre colouration will aid in

The recessive shrunken2‐Reference (sh2‐Ref) allele is traditionally used in sweet corn cultivar development worldwide. However, non‐availability of suitable gene‐based marker(s) for sh2‐Ref has considerably delayed its utilization in molecular breeding. Here, 7,320 bp sequence of Sh2 gene among five wild‐ and six sh2‐Ref‐based inbreds was analysed by employing 13 overlapping primers. SNP583 (A in wild

DREB transcription factors regulate the expression of stress‐responsive genes, and thus play an important role in plant stress response to abiotic stresses. To obtain a global expression profile of soybean DREB genes under drought stress, we first explored the soybean genome to identify DREB family genes, and then analysed a set of transcriptome data of drought stress to verify their involvement in

Quinoa offers a promising alternative for staple food, considering its outstanding nutritional value and tolerance to abiotic stresses. To develop breeding programmes in quinoa, a reliable crossing method for increasing the genetic variation is required. In the following study, we aimed to develop segregating populations in quinoa. We tested the efficiency of three different crossing methods (hand

The Expansin protein is known for its multifaceted roles in plant growth, especially cell walls. However, very few studies have been done so far to assess the effects of expansin genes on Cotton fibre development. The present study is a successful effort to fill this gap, where the α‐EXPA1 gene transformed into a local cotton variety, Gossypium hirsutum, through Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation

Salt tolerance is a physiologically and genetically complex trait controlled by multiple genes. To analyze the genetic basis of salt tolerance we evaluated 18 F1 along with their nine parents under three salt stress levels i.e. control, 10 dS m−1 and 15 dS m−1 in the summer of 2017 and 2018. Data were recorded for the number of bolls, seed cotton yield, boll weight, Na+, K+, K+/Na+ ratio, H2O2, SOD

Fonio production is generally in polyvarietal mixture and no improved varieties are available yet. This work proposed a pathway for homogenization and mass selection from 19 accessions previously collected in Benin, to sort best genotypes. From 2015 to 2017, accessions were submitted to homogenization followed by separated conduct of different phenotypes appeared each year. Each material was evaluated

Flowering time is important in the adaptation of crop plants to different environments and impacts the economic value of agricultural crops. Wheatgrass is a perennial Triticeae species and one of the most important grasses for pasture and forage in temperate regions of the world. Late heading is of interest in forage crop breeding programmes. Increasing the time to heading by molecular means may be

Rice is one of the most important crops in the world. The wild species of rice are expected to have novel beneficial alleles that have been lost from cultivated rice during the process of domestication. Therefore, wild species could be the potential source to induce lost genetic diversity in cultivated rice. Serving as an important reservoir of novel genes/QTLs, wild species, in general, are better

The genetic base for soybean cultivars is narrow compared to most other crop species. Twenty‐seven wild perennial Glycine species comprise the tertiary gene pool to soybean that may contain many genes of economic importance for soybean improvement. We evaluated 16 accessions of G. argyrea, G. clandestina, G. dolichocarpa, and G. tomentella for resistance to Heterodera glycines (HG), also known as the

Development of durable resistance to soybean rust (SBR) is challenging due to the pathogenic diversity of Phakopsora pachyrhizi populations. The objective of this research was to investigate and confirm the genomic locations of Rpp genes in the Ugandan line UG‐5 that confer resistance to different SBR pathotypes. Bulked segregant analysis revealed two genomic regions associated with resistance in a