Principles and Methods of Plant Breeding

Contents Preface. 1. Centres of origin. 2. Mechanism of pollination control in crop plants. 3. Reproductive and pollinative systems in plants. 4. Germplasm conservation. 5. Plant domestication and introduction. 6. Selection in self pollinated crops. 7. Breeding methods for self pollinated crops. 8. Genetic composition of cross pollinated populations. 9. Breeding methods for cross pollinated crops. 10. Heterosis and inbreeding depression. 11. Breeding methods for asexually reproduced crops. 12. Resistance breeding. 13. Mutation breeding. 14. Polyploidy breeding. 15. Wide hybridization. 16. Biodiversity and its conservation. 17. Gene patenting. 18. Biometrics and plant breeding. 19. Molecular markers and marker assisted selection. Selected references. Glossary. This book has been prepared especially for undergraduate students of agriculture and postgraduate students of agriculture whose area of specialization is plant breeding and genetics. The first five chapters describe the fundamental concepts of plant breeding. The chapters sixth through eleventh broadly explain various methods of breeding in self pollinated cross pollinated and asexually reproduced crops. Specific breeding methods like resistance breeding mutation breeding polyploidy breeding and distant hybridization were explained in twelfth to fifteenth chapters. While chapter sixteen contains matters regarding biodiversity chapters seventeen through nineteen largely explains about the recent techniques in crop improvement like gene patenting biometrics and molecular marker assisted selection. 183 pp.…