WELCOME

PLANT BREEDING
Course Overview:
Introduction
Plant Genetic Resources
Self-incompatibility
Apomixis
Male Sterility
Chapter one: Introduction to plant Breeding

• Bangladesh has a primarily agrarian economy.

• Agriculture is the single largest producing sector
of the economy (18.6% of the country's GDP and
45% of the total labour force).
• The performance of this sector has an
overwhelming impact on major macroeconomic
objectives like employment generation, poverty
alleviation, human resources development
and food security.
• Although rice and jute are the primary crops
• Wheat is assuming greater importance
• Tea is grown in the northeast.
Because of Bangladesh's fertile soil and normally
ample water supply, rice can be grown and harvested
three times a year in many areas. 
• DESPITE high pressure of population on land and other
natural resources, Bangladesh has made remarkable
progress in national food production over the last three
and half decades.
• Although the country has achieved near self-sufficiency
in food grain, continued population growth and the
extreme scarcity of land raise the challenge of sustaining
the gains.
• Think-tank economists postulate that, because
of population and income growth, the demand
for cereal foods (especially for rice) is expected
to rise by over 1.5% per annum for the next
few decades.
• An estimate clearly indicated that by the year
2020, 37 million tons of food grain will be
required for a projected population of 172
million.
• It is very big challenge in achieving food self-
sufficiency and ensuring food security for all
individuals and groups.
Grains production: Bangladesh perspectives
Grains production: International perspectives
How can we meet the demand? Is it possible
through PLANT BREEDING?
• Plant breeding has been practiced since the beginning of
human civilization. It is practiced worldwide by individuals
such as gardeners and farmers, or by professional plant
breeders employed by organizations such as government
institutions, universities, crop-specific industry associations
or research centers.
• International development agencies believe that breeding
new crops is important for ensuring food security by
developing new varieties that are higher-yielding, resistant
to pests and diseases, drought-resistant or regionally
adapted to different environments and growing conditions.
 What is Plant Breeding?/DEFINITION(s)

• Plant breeding is the art and science of changing

the traits of plants in order to produce desired
characteristics.
• Plant breeding,
science of altering the genetic pattern of
plants in order to increase their value.
• The application of genetic analysis to
development of plant lines better suited for
human purposes.
• Plant Breeding consists of the principles and the
methods requires for favourably changing the
genetic constitutions of crop plants.
 Plant breeding: Art/Science/Technology?

• Art: An expression of human imagination,

creativity and skill that lends itself to subjective
interpretation and evaluation.
• Science: The body of knowledge obtained through
scientific methods of observation, hypothesization,
experimentation and interpretation.
• Technology: When scientific principles, and/or
human skill and ingenuity are utilized to generate
useful products or services, the realm is called
technology………
 So, Plant breeding can be rightly viewed as a
technology since it generate a useful product, i.e.,
an improved variety

Genetics and
Skill, judgement and
cytogenetics based
abilities of breeder/
breeding programmes
selection (Art)
(Science)

Improved crop
varieties (Technology)
 Plant Breeding/Reproduction: Which one is
right????
• Reproduction (or procreation) is the biological
process by which new individual organisms–
"offspring" – are produced from their "parents".
• Breeding is when the animal/plant is specifically
chosen by humans to create a special offspring.
 Some common terms:

• Line: A group of individuals having common parents or ancestors.

• Cultivar: an organism and especially one of an agricultural or
horticultural variety or strain originating and persistent
under cultivation. /
• A race or variety of a plant that has been created or selected
intentionally and maintained through cultivation [culti(vated) +
var(iety).]
• Variety: In plant breeding, a strain released for commercial
cultivation by a variety realesed committee;
• In botany, a sub division of species based on form, function or both.
• Species: A unit of taxonomic classification ; members of a species are
more alike than those from different species.
• Strain: A group of individuals similar in phenotype and often in
genotype. A strain is known as a variety when it is released for
commercial cultivation by a variety release committee.
 Cultivar and variety: Same?
• The difference between cultivars and varieties
is one of origin. In simple terms a variety is a
type of plant that arose in nature while a
cultivar is the result human intervention (just
collecting the plant or its seeds but the
existence of the plant is due to human effort).
• Varieties often occur in nature and most varieties are true to type
(same unique characteristic of the parent plant). white flowering redbud
(Cercis canadensis var. alba).

Cultivars are not necessarily true to type. Propagation by seed usually

produces something different than the parent plant.

• Varieties and cultivars also have differently naming conventions.

A variety is always written in lower case and italicized. It also often has the
abbreviation "var." for variety preceding it. (Cercis canadensis var. alba).

The first letter of a cultivar is capitalized and the term is never italicized.
Cultivars are also surrounded by single quotation marks (never double
quotation marks) or preceded by the abbreviation "cv.". Cultivar of
redbud, Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' (or Cercis canadensis cv. Forest
Pansy).
Cercis canadensis var. alba
Cercis canadensis cv. Forest Pansy
 Can a plant have both a variety and a
cultivar?
• Sure. One good example is Sunburst Honeylocust.
Its scientific name is Gleditsia
triacanthos var. inermis'Sunburst'. The term
"inermis" means without thorns and "Sunburst"
refers to the bright golden spring leaf color.
 
In today's world of horticulture, cultivars are
planted and used more than varieties. Yet we often
still refer to a type of plant species as a variety
instead of what is actually is a cultivar.
Sunburst Honeylocust/ Gleditsia triacathos
var. inermis cv. Sunburst
HAVE A NICE DAY