Plant Breeding – Class 12 | Chapter – 9 | Biology Short Notes Series PDF

Plant Breeding: It is the deliberate manipulation of plant genetics to create new varieties that have desirable traits such as increased yield, disease resistance, improved flavor, and increased tolerance to environmental stressors. This is accomplished through various methods, including cross-pollination, mutation breeding, and genetic engineering. The ultimate goal of plant breeding is to produce crops that are more productive and sustainable, meeting the increasing demand for food and other plant-based products.

The need for plant breeding arose because of the following reasons:

• Increasing the yield of the harvested crop
• Inculcate customized characteristics in plant species
• Higher adaptability to excesses of weather and season changes
• Increased resistance to bugs and insects.

Types of Plant Breeding

There are several types of plant breeding, including:

• Traditional Breeding: This involves the controlled cross-pollination of plants to produce offspring with desirable traits. This method has been used for thousands of years to improve crops and is still widely used today.
• Hybrid Breeding: This involves the cross-pollination of two different varieties to produce a hybrid with improved traits. Hybrids are often more vigorous and productive than either parent plant.
• Mutation Breeding: This involves exposing plants to radiation or chemicals to induce genetic mutations, which can lead to the development of new traits.
• Genetic Engineering: This involves the direct manipulation of a plant’s genetic material to introduce specific traits. This method can be used to introduce traits from a completely different species into a crop plant.

• Marker-Assisted Breeding: This involves the use of molecular markers to track specific genes and accelerate the breeding process. This method allows breeders to more quickly identify plants with desired traits and incorporate them into their breeding programs.

Steps of Plant Breeding

The steps of plant breeding include:

• Identifying a desirable trait or combination of traits to improve.
• Collecting and maintaining a diverse genetic pool of the target species.
• Selecting parents with the desired traits.
• Cross-breeding the selected parents to produce offspring with a combination of the desired traits.
• Evaluating the offspring to determine which plants have the desired traits.
• Selecting the best plants and breeding them again to reinforce the desired traits.
• Evaluating the next generation of plants to determine the success of the breeding program.
• Repeating the process of selection, breeding and evaluation until the desired traits are consistently present in the population.
• Testing the plants in different environments and conditions to ensure the stability of the desired traits.
• Releasing the improved variety for cultivation and distribution.

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