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Limitations to the use of physiological variability in plant breeding

From National Research Council Canada

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DOIResolve DOI: https://doi.org/10.4141/cjps83-002
AuthorSearch for: 1
Affiliation
  1. National Research Council of Canada. Prairie Regional Laboratory
FormatText, Article
Subjectgenetic heritability; physiology of yield
Abstract
The possibility that breeding programs may be reaching a point of limited progress because of the lack of genetic diversity has often been raised. However, there is also an often-expressed feeling that considerable genetic variability may exist in fundamental physiological processes. In this review, an attempt is made to examine whether there is evidence of genetic variability in quantitative physiological characters, and if so, whether such variability is likely to be useful to crop improvement programs. The results, presented from the literature and the author’s laboratory, indicate that physiological characters demonstrate considerable genotypic variability in expression. Moreover, in cases where genotype performance has been studied over a range of environments or where crossing studies have been carried out, physiological characters often have relatively high heritabilities. This suggests that, at least from a genetic standpoint, improvements in the expression of physiological processes may be possible. On the other hand, the problems of environmental sensitivity and its resultant error variability, combined with cumbersome methodology and complex physiological interactions, make it difficult to relate individual physiological characters to agronomic benefits, and make large genetic studies difficult. The exploitation of physiological diversity remains a major challenge to plant scientists.
Publication date
PublisherCanadian Science Publishing
National Research Council of Canada. NRC Research Press
In
  • Canadian Journal of Plant Science 63, no. 1 (1 January 1983): 11–21.
LanguageEnglish
Peer reviewedYes
IdentifierNRCC-20790
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Record identifiereccc8952-f16f-404e-a783-49f8ba16e3a3
Record created2023-09-01
Record modified2023-10-06
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