Now a days, speed breeding is being used in many crops for advancing generations at faster pace to develop mapping population. But it can be done to a limited scale. Is it a better approach for the development of improved cultivars as compared with conventional approach?
Although it is a buzz word these days but you must remember that it is nothing new for us, the breeders. Its just old wine in new bottle. 'Please remember our college days when we used to adopt shuttle breeding, embryo rescue, DH breeding, etc. to hasten the breeding cycle. A few plus and minuses like precise photo- and thermo period manipulations now and here comes a new concept......and a new publication to create ripples in stagnant water! I am sure we have been using it in Indian NARS for varietal development since long and we should continue doing so. The only thing is that we need to be more precise and more calculative. Good luck to you.
Yes, you are rightly mentioned that speed breeding is very good approach to advance breeding population. Previously, 14-16 years needed to develop rice variety but now a days 8-10 years is enough to develop rice varieties followed by rapid generation advance (RGA) technique.
Speed breeding as such aims at speeding up breeding cycle, and thus hastens advancement of breeding populations at a rapid rate. In past also, we all have been doing this exercise through various techniques including doubled haploidy breeding. Whereas new cultivar should possess improved combination of genes of interest, merely advancing generations speedily will have no implication on the genetic gain. The speed breeding approach may be used for cultivar development, if it is integrated with conventional and modern breeding technologies.
Generation advancement has never been a big issue for breeders but the question whether the desired recombinants for directional selection (which indeed is indices of various phenotypic observation scorable or qualitative) can be screened during the segregating generation?. Yes, when we the trait under selection has high heritability but for complex interactions involving environment-specific expression the useful allele/ genotypic frequency may be diluted enough to yield nothing. So a useful balance wherein the segregating generation amenable to selection should be grown in the target production environment and selected progenies can be advanced rapidly which will not only reduce the number but the efficiency also. Where the selection is not important, rapid generation advancement is useful.
Dear Naresh
Yes, i fully agree with. This is the answer i was expeting. The segregating generations soulf be grown i target envirenment if the purpose is to develop imroved cultivars.
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