Biotechnologies for Plant Mutation Breeding: Protocols

Abstract

Sustainable global food security remains a serious challenge. The compounding factors of a growing population, a changing climate and finite and dwindling natural resources mean that food production needs to increase dramatically in the coming decades. Genetic improvement of crops has historically led to vast gains in yields and subsequently has reduced famine. Variation is the source of all breeding, and inducing mutations is an important and successful approach for generating novel variation and developing new crop varieties that are climate smart and nutritious and increase farmer’s incomes. The use of induced mutations dates back to the 1920s, and today there are over 3200 mutant crop varieties registered in a database curated by the FAO/IAEA. The process can be improved through the development, adaptation and transfer of technologies for optimizing the density of induced mutations and increasing the efficiency of phenotypic and genotypic screening of large mutant plant populations. Towards this end, the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques for Food and Agriculture initiated a collaborative Coordinated Research Project (CRP) titled “Enhancing the Efficiency of Induced Mutagenesis through an Integrated Biotechnology Pipeline“. The project brought together researchers from developing and developed countries with the aim to develop protocols and guidelines to improve the efficiency of the different steps of the plant mutation breeding process. This book provides protocols resulting from this CRP.