I just saw your question after I began a discussion on the same topic !! Conventional breeding is here to stay. Molecular breeding has to be treated as a tool to support conventional breeding. But sadly, we have loads of publications in the molecular field without matching products that are regularly being delivered by conventional breeding. The release of new varieties is majorly through conventional procedures, at least in our country.

Tree breeding is definitely time consuming.

Both conventional plant breeding and GM deliver genetic crop improvement. Genetic improvement has been a central pillar of improved agricultural productivity for thousands of years. This is because wild plants make very poor crops. Natural selection tends to favour plants that can compete with neighbouring plants for light, water and nutrients, defend themselves from being eaten and digested by animals, and disperse their seed over long distances.

Thiru Selvan Conventional plant breeding is still more the art then science. Research in conventional plant breeding usually explains the result but cannot predict good output. MAS, GM or genome edition give more predictable result, less dependent on the plant breeder skills and experience. Long time ago my professor said that when you work in plant breeding, you get first good result in 5 years, you stop making mistakes after 10 years, and you can do everything after 15 years of work. There is no any commercial plant breeding company that will make now such long-term investment in its staff.

Conventionalplant breeding has been a good approach for genetic improvement of plants. But nowadays with the invent of modern breeding tools that helps to get desired results in shorter time and with more precision and accuracy, researchers prefer these techniques.

Mukul Barwant Alex Ignatov Sarvjeet Singh Certainly it is a fact that MAS, GM and genome editions has delivered much more results in a shorter time but I was mentioning that if you take the case of most "Forest Trees" which have longer life span and are difficult to worth with as far as GM, has not been able to deliver much. Whatever results which we have are with regards to crops which have a shorter life span.

I only have a question, that per year what is the output of conventional breeding vs modern molecular breeding irrespective of information generation in terms of crops actually improved

Takes much time.

@Thiru Selvan Conventional breeding has delivered much more, and brought about green revolution in many parts of the world especially under high input agriculture. Even today, it is integrated in all the modern breeding programs. During the last one-two decades, the rate of genetic gain has been very slow. This it is quite natural to turn towards modern tools and techniques in anticipation that it will accelerate the rate of genetic gain. However, genetic gain will depend on the genetic diversity, which in turn, depends on the number of parents to be crossed, their pedigree, handling of segregating generations, precision and accuracy of selections, and proper evaluation of those selections. The present-day plant breeding combines both conventional and molecular breeding. Further gains owe to integration of both approaches. To what extent integration of genomic tools and techniques have benefitted, the genetic gain per year may be one of the criteria.

Tree species are mostly asexually propagated, highly heterozygous and possibly polyploids. This far, genetic improvement has been made substantially through conventional breeding. However, the speed of gain has to be enhanced. That to what extent modern genomic tools and emerging speed breeding can effect genetic improvement in tree species is still speculative.

Thiru Selvan Conventional breeding is still very important in transgenesis era. One example, 'hybrid' production is one of most used methods in modern crop production worldwide. To make hybrid, one needs to breed 'Inbred lines' for some crops. This is conventional breeding. For example, (1) the inbred lines used in hybrid carrot production can be generated through selfing through several generations (in some cases, CMS lines are available to use). (2) Statistical analysis of the yield of a new variety (including those generated by transgenesis) by planting them in different locations, different years, and replications for G x E evaluation (an example) are also conventional breeding concept. And this is an important approach in evaluating a new crop variety. (3) The selectable marker gene (SMG) in a transgenic lines can be removed through backcrossing scheme; this is also a 'conventional' breeding strategy. So, both conventional breeding and transgenic breeding are important for plant breeding. A person needs to equip with both knowledge to be a good plant breeder.

I just saw your question after I began a discussion on the same topic !! Conventional breeding is here to stay. Molecular breeding has to be treated as a tool to support conventional breeding. But sadly, we have loads of publications in the molecular field without matching products that are regularly being delivered by conventional breeding. The release of new varieties is majorly through conventional procedures, at least in our country.

Tree breeding is definitely time consuming.

Rajesh S Patil I agree with you. You also mentioned " we have loads of publications in the molecular field ....". This is because most molecular studies are using model plants, such as Arabidopsis, which is a fast life-cycle plants. Researches can obtain results pretty quick to publish. The plants grow in climate-controlled growth chamber or greenhouse. On the contract, a conventional breeding program can take many years, because they have to wait for data collections from different years (ex. for yield trials), different locations and such. It could take a few years to publish just one classic breeding paper. My University advisor is a renown carrot breeder (we had intensive field work), but he also brought in different 'molecular' projects into the lab. He is working in both conventional and transgenic breeding now.

Yuan-Yeu Yau Hi, And most molecular publications end with lot of loose ends !! To dig through all relevant information and launch a molecular breeding program will be difficult and may not yield much once the program ends. With conventional breeding, down the line there are sometimes good surprises which can serve other purposes

It is a matter of urgency to get new cultivars resistant to pests and diseases. The classical breeding is still going on but it is slower than the new technique of genome editing especially if you are dealing with polypoid plants.

Of Course, traditional breeding is the root of crop improvement. But modern breeding techniques may increase the precision of selection and testing and may shorten the time period required for varietal development. Therefore, classical breeding with proper utilization of modern breeding techniques will be more fruitful as compare to only traditional breeding.

I think, traditional breeding can not be replaced by modern breeding for developing a sustainable and durable variety.

Conventional and molecular approach is complimentary nowadays in field crops. Molecular assisted breeding will shorten the breeding cycle in conventional breeding. If you have important known QTLs you can easily transfer via mol breeding

Plant breeding has been practiced for thousands of years knowingly or unknowingly. The approaches have been evolving based on the societal demands for food and other needs. The future demands mainly for cereal crops are high and are to be met with reduced land and other inputs, which is difficult task. Hence novel speed breeding tools are required, it doesn't mean the basic principles of breeding don't apply, they do. The ultimate aim is to achieve high genetic gains and also introduction of deficient traits.

Because it consumes time, need a lot of patience and continuous persistence infield but it always yields a stable product. the conventional breeding methods always provide a route map for development superior material. upon which people go for molecular analysis. but still, studies on genetic analysis, gene interaction, hybrid development, gene action and much more are ruling in the field of plant genetics. we should never forget its contribution to the green revolution.

Convention breeding methods played key role during geen revolution and Post green revilution as well. As trees are perennial in nature and most are propagated by means of vegetative proapagation. But conventional methods needs persistance and dedicated time investment in breeding. Innthe need of urgency now focus is slowly shifting from Conventional methods to most modern approaches like Genomic selection, Genome editing, but here also role played by conventional breeding cannot be overruled

Dear Thiru! In my opinion the bottleneck in using conventional breeding program for improvement of forest trees or other tree crops like fruits is that the method is time consuming, needs large area of land if you want to cross trees and evaluate the segregating population, may be need to invest a lot of money etc...and above all commitment. Yet, there are fruit crops/forest trees improved and commercialized.

This mini review has a piece of information.. and some references also talk about..

Article The Road to Resistance in Forest Trees

The following review article focuses on problems in fruit breeding and present status of different breeding approaches for fruit quality improvement in fruit trees.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10341-015-0264-4?shared-article-renderer

Regarding asked question, I mention that conventional breeding vs moleculer breeding is complement to each other or counterpart of any research. It is required to objective and target for improvement of crop plant or tree breeding. In case of tree breeding for propagation of plants or evaluation of breeding material is still time consuming and costly. There is molecular tools are available to shorten the period to develop new strain alongwith conventional breeding.

Here, I stating one point as above said the demand of molecular work publication is quick acceptable and worthful than conventional breeding. There is need to understand the worth of conventional breeding work may be taken as priority to publish like molecular breeding work. Everyone know that molecular breeding is not fruitfull or worthfull without addition of conventional breeding due to environment played a crucial role to sustain any plant species on the earth.

Thiru Selvan Molecular breeding is a tool to assist conventional breeding. It is rquired to shorten the cycle of plant development. In case of tree breeding molecular tools will be very useful to shorten the period in development of any tree species.

https://rdcu.be/b6i68