As ancient as agriculture itself, plant breeding is one of civilization's oldest activities.

Today, world food production is more dependent than ever on the successful cultivation of only a handful of major crops, while continuing advances in agriculture rely on successfully breeding new varieties that are well-adapted to their human-influenced ecological circumstances. Plant breeding involves elements of both natural and cultural selection—a process which operates on individual plants and on plant populations.

This book offers the most recent detailed knowledge of plant reproduction and their environmental interaction. This will help guide new breeding programs to insure continuing progress in providing more food for growing populations, produced with better care of the environment.

Contents:

INTRODUCTORY TOPICS.
Darwinian Evolution.
Origins of Agriculture. Evolution During Domestication.
Mating Systems of Plants.
Overview of Plant Breeding.

BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF PLANT BREEDING.
Heredity and Environment.
Genetic Consequences of Hybridization.
Inheritance of Continuously Varying Characters: Biometrical Genetics.
Evolution During Cultivation.
Marker-Assisted Analysis of Adaptedness in Nature.
Marker-Assisted Dissection of Adaptedness in Cultivation.

MODERN BREEDING PLANS.
Reproductive Systems and Breeding Plans.
Breeding Self-Pollinated Plants.
Breeding Hybrid Varieties of Outcrossing Plants.
Breeding Clonally Propagated Plants.
Breeding Hybrid Varieties of Selfing Plants and Plants that Are Clonally Propagated in Nature.
Plant Breeding for Low-Input Agricultures.

Glossary. References. Index.

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