Advances from Conventional to Modern Plant Breeding Methodologies

First initiation of breeding started thousands of years ago when human practiced selection based in visually appealing traits. Further, domestication of wild plants eased adaptation of plant breeding. With increase in population the demand for food also increased which resulted in development of various breeding methodologies. Conventional breeding is a selective breeding methodology where crops are selected based on superior performances. Pure-line selections, mass selection, back cross breeding, recurrent selection, hybridization were most famous traditional breeding methods. It is a longer breeding method and is over-dependent on phenotype of plants. However, phenotypes of a plant are affected by various externalities. So, selection based on phenotypic expression is not accurate. As a result, breeder started integrating various branches of biology in plant breeding and developed modern breeding practices. After Mendelian theory and identification of DNA and RNA, plant breeding diverted to molecular era. People started breeding based on less environmentally susceptible parameters like genotypes, visual and genetic markers, image analysis and loci mapping. Some of the most common modern breeding practices include genomic selection, markers assisted breeding, high throughput phenotyping and CRISPR-Cas9. Despite these, plant breeding has fired up the problems of gene erosion due to loss of local landraces and wild-type plants.