مركز بحوث التقانه والسلامة الحيوية

Conventional plant breeding overview

During conventional plant breeding genes are mixed and newly assorted. This results in non-desired traits being inherited together with the trait of interest.

How do you develop a new crop variety by genetic modification?

How do plants reproduce sexually?

Each kernel in a cob of maize is the seed of a new individual, and although they all share a mother, they can each potentially

How does sexual reproduction generate genetic variation?

How are simple traits inherited?

When two parents homozygous for different alleles are crossed, the progeny (also called F1, for filial generation 1) is an heterozygote. F1 generations of homozygous parents are

What are intraspecific or F1 hybrids?

What is hybridisation?

Rice farmer(s) in Rwanda. Hybridisation is a central process in plant breeding. There are two main classes of hybrids: interspecific hybrids and intraspecific or F1 hybrids

Where do our crops come from? III. Banana

Bananas are hugely important as food and cash crop for smallholder farmers in Africa: 70 million people in 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa depend on bananas and plantains

Where do our crops come from? II. Tomato

Tomato is one of the most important crops world-wide. It belongs to the Solanaceae family, which includes >3000 species with origins in both Asia (aubergine in China and

Where do our crops come from? I. Maize

Male Plant Maize is one of the most important sources of food in the African continent: in 2010 production in Africa was worth over $US 6 billion (FAO).

Where do our crops come from? I. Maize

Male Plant Maize is one of the most important sources of food in the African continent: in 2010 production in Africa was worth over $US 6 billion (FAO).

What are cultivars, clones and landraces?

Different types of rice from the collection of IRRI’s International Rice Genebank. A cultivar is a plant or grouping of plants selected for desirable characteristics that can be maintained

What is a chromosome?

Extended DNA molecules would be very long (human DNA would be two meters long) but DNA is coiled and packaged in structures known as chromosomes. Chromosomes are contained

Modern Genetics and Crop Improvement

Modifying the genes of crops is the defining feature of the domestication of plants for agriculture. It has been practiced for

?Where do plant breeders find genetic diversity

The source of genetic variation for resistance to a pest or disease (for example) can be found in cultivated vari eties of plants, or among