Home/About
Glossary
Sections:
Introduction
Principles of inheritance
Genotypic variation
Other forms of heritable variation
Quantitative variation and heritability
Novel sources of genetic variation
The practice of plant breeding
Breeding methods
Plant Breeders' rights
New technologies for plant breeding

Plant Breeding: Concepts and Methods

A Learning Module

Robert Koebner and Theresa Fulton

This learning module is intended as a self-tutorial or a refresher, or to provide teaching materials to be used in a course. It is geared towards scientists or upper-level students with a good background in biology and an understanding of basic genetics.

It is designed to be complementary to other GCP learning modules, which cover molecular markers, genetic diversity, phenotyping, and marker-assisted breeding.

The module is presented in 10 sections:

  1. Introduction and historical development of plant breeding
  2. Principles of inheritance
  3. Genotypic variation
  4. Other forms of heritable variation
  5. Quantitative variation and heritability
  6. Novel sources of genetic variation
  7. The practice of plant breeding
  8. Breeding methods (self-pollinators, cross-pollinators, polyploids, etc.)
  9. Plant Breeders' rights
  10. New technologies for plant breeding

In addition, a glossary of terms commonly encountered in plant breeding is included.

Special thanks to members of the Cornell University Plant Breeding department and Dr. R. Summers (RAGT Seeds, Cambridge, UK) who reviewed the material and gave helpful suggestions.