Book Description

Speed breeding systems for sustainable food production offer a promising solution to address food security and environmental sustainability. Speed breeding technologies allow accelerating generation of new plant varieties with desired traits in a short period. These systems include genetic selection, vertical hydroponics and data-driven smart sensor applications. Quick generation of plant varieties is achieved by manipulating photoperiods of a native plant with extended light periods in a controlled environment to fasten the crop cycle. This allows for multiple plant generations to be grown and harvested in a single year rather than the typical one to two generations in traditional field-based breeding. The application of molecular markers in the analysis of crop genomes enables the identification and characterization of genetic variation within a crop species. This, in turn, helps breeders in identifying and selecting plants with desirable traits, such as resistance to pests or diseases, or improved yield. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS) are two recent methods that revolutionized plant breeding to improve the efficiency and accuracy of selecting desirable traits. MAS allows breeders to identify desirable traits earlier in the breeding process, without having to wait for the traits to be phenotypically expressed. On the other hand, GS allows breeders to predict the performance of a plant before it is even grown and can help speed up the breeding process by allowing breeders to select plants with desirable traits much earlier in the breeding process.