Can Parentage Analysis Facilitate Breeding Activities in Root and Tuber Crops?

Abstract

Controlled pollination in root and tuber crops is challenging. Complex ploidy, cross-incompatibility, erratic flowering patterns, outcrossing, etc., limit the efficiency of breeding progress in these crops. Half-sib breeding that involves random pollination among parents is a viable method to harness genetic gain in outcrossing crops that are problematic for performing planned and controlled pollination. The authenticity of resulting progenies from the half-sib breeding is essential to monitor the selection gain in the breeding program. Parentage analysis facilitated by molecular markers is among the available handy tools for crop breeders to maximize genetic gain in a breeding program. It can help to resolve the identity of half-sib progenies and reconstruct the pedigree in the outcrossing crops. This paper reviews the potential benefits of parentage analysis in breeding selected outcrossing root and tuber crops. It assesses how paternity analysis facilitates breeding activities and the ways it improves genetic gain in the root and tuber breeding programs. Conscious use of complementary techniques in the root and tuber breeding programs can increase the selection gain by reducing the long breeding cycle and cost, as well as reliable exploitation of the heritable variation in the desired direction.

Genetic parameter estimation and selection in advanced breeding population of white Guinea yam

“…Besides, gBLUP analysis could be used to reduce the stages of field evaluation in yams to save resources and increase the pace of cultivar release. The merits of genomic prediction in reducing cycle time and evaluation stages in crop breeding programs have been extensively explained (Muranty et al 2015;Resende et al 2017Resende et al , 2012Burgueño et al 2007;Bradbury et al 2007;Garcia, Carbonell, and Asíns 2000), including root and tuber crops (Friedmann et al 2018;Norman et al 2018). Genomic prediction contributes to efficient parental identification for crossing (Heffner, Sorrells, and Jannink 2009).…”

Review of empirical and emerging breeding methods and tools for yam (Dioscorea spp.) improvement: Status and prospects

“…For many root and tuber crops such as yam, planned crosses are quite challenging due to inherent biological bottlenecks such as cross‐incompatibility, non‐synchronous and erratic flowering and polyploidy. A viable alternative for genetic improvement in outcrossing species that are constrained in executing planned and controlled crosses is half‐sib breeding which entails the random pollination among desirable parents (Norman et al, ). The progeny emanating from half‐sib breeding must therefore be authenticated in order to ascertain the selection gain in the breeding programme.…”

Recent Large-Scale Genotyping and Phenotyping of Plant Genetic Resources of Vegetatively Propagated Crops

“…Correct pedigrees are valuable for applied breeding programs but many cultivars in, e.g., root and tuber crops are still derived mainly from open pollination and polycross blocks [ 161 ]. Pedigree information is also a backbone for research on trait heritability, estimation of breeding values and conducting marker association analyses.…”