Recent Advances in MAS in Major Crops

Abstract

The amount of land available for crop production is decreasing steadily due to urban growth and land degradation, and the trend is expected to be much more dramatic in the developing than in the developed countries. These decreases in the amount of land available for crop production and increase in human population will have major implications for food security over the next two or three decades. Food insecurity and malnutrition result in serious public health problems. Much of the early increase rise in grain production resulted from an increase in area under cultivation, irrigation, better agronomic practices and, most importantly improved cultivars through conventional breeding strategies. However, yields of several crops have already reached a plateau in developed countries, and therefore, most of the productivity gains in the future will have to be achieved in developing countries through better natural resources management and crop improvement. It is in this context that marker-assisted selection (MAS) will play an important role in food production in the near future. MAS offers plant breeders access to an infinitely wide array of novel genes and traits, which can be inserted into high-yielding and locally adapted cultivars. This approach offers rapid introgression of novel genes and traits into elite agronomic backgrounds. Though MAS has been successfully applied to several crops (see Chapter x), only four crops have been discussed in detail in the below sections.