328. Heslop-Harrison JS. 2017. Crop Improvement: Plant Nuclear Genomes. Encyclopedia of Applied Plant Sciences 2nd Edition. In proof.

Plant breeders work with large amounts of DNA sequence information including the sequences of all genes and the repetitive DNA that makes up the majority of most genomes. Knowledge of the diversity and evolution of the sequences is proving important to developing DNA markers, indentifying genetic and QTL characters, the selection of breeding lines and the measurement and exploitation of biodiversity. Nuclear DNA sequence information can be used for improvement all crop species with directed superdomestication approaches leading to improved performance, resistances to biotic and abiotic stress, and greater environmental sustainability to meet the challenges of increasing populations and climate change.

Keywords

Biodiversity, Breeding, Epigenetics, Genetics, Genomics, Genomes, Repetitive DNA, Traits, Plastomes, Chloroplasts, Markers, QTL, Chromosomes, Genome size