Polyploidy and hybridizaton for crop improvement

Many of our current agricultural crops are natural or agricultural hybrids (between two or more species), or polyploids (containing more than one genome or set of chromosomes). These include potato, oats, cotton, oilseed rape, wheat, strawberries, kiwifruit, banana, seedless watermelon, triticale and many others. Polyploidy and hybridization can also be used for crop improvement: for example, to introgress disease resistance from wild species into crops, to produce seedless fruits for human consumption, or even to create entirely new crop types. Some crop genera have hundreds of years of interspecific hybridization and ploidy manipulation behind them, while in other genera use of these evolutionary processes for crop improvement is still at the theoretical stage. This book brings together stories and examples by expert researchers and breeders working in diverse crop genera, and details how polyploidy and hybridization processes have shaped our current crops, how these processes have been utilized for crop improvement in the past, and how polyploidy and interspecific hybridization can be used for crop improvement in the future.

Interspecific hybridization for upland cotton improvement -- Allopolyploidy and interspecific hybridization for wheat improvement -- Potato breeding through ploidy manipulations -- Polyploid induction techniques and breeding strategies in poplar -- Musa interspecific hybridization and polyploidy for breeding banana and plantain (musaceae) -- Strawberry (plants in the genus fragaria) -- The role of polyploidization and interspecific hybridization in the breeding of ornamental crops -- Polyploidy in maize: the impact of homozygosity and hybridity on phenotype -- Broadening the genetic basis for crop improvement: interspecific hybridization within and between ploidy levels in helianthus -- Crop improvement of phaseolus spp. through interspecific and intraspecific hybridization -- Triticale -- Polyploidy and interspecific hybridization in cynodon, paspalum, pennisetum, and zoysia -- Interploid and interspecific hybridization for kiwifruit improvement -- Oat improvement and innovation using wild genetic resources (poaceae, avena spp.): elevating "oats" to a new level and stature -- Interspecific hybridization of chestnut -- Use of polyploids, interspecific, and intergeneric wide hybrid…