BIOMETRICS AND PLANT BREEDING IN THE GENOMICS AGE

• Main Authors: MAGNO ANTÔNIO PATTO RAMALHO, EDUARDO DE SOUZA LAMBERT
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Associação Brasileira de Milho e Sorgo 2004-08-01
• Series: Revista Brasileira de Milho e Sorgo
• Subjects: breeding: quantitative genetics; biothecnology: molecular markers
• Online Access: http://rbms.cnpms.embrapa.br/index.php/ojs/article/view/105/106

Genetic improvement started with the domestication of some plant species more than 10,000 years ago and has been intensified to meet the demands for foods with population growth. Genetics, Plant Breeding and Biometrics have been closely associated for at least 85 years. The union of these areas of knowledge originated Quantitative Genetics. It can be easily proved that these sciences played an important role in the production of foods, wood, fiber and so forth to meet men needs in the last century. The advent of molecular markers and genome sequencing techniques in 1974, opened up the possibility of a selection strategy directly on the genotype (DNA). Several laboratory techniques were implemented to obtain molecular markers and the DNA sequencing processes boomed and created what is called the genome era. The recombinant DNA technology development, allowing the transfer of genes among species that were unimaginable previously, made some scientists begin to question the future contribution of Quantitative Genetics. The objective of this publication is to show that all the available evidence points to the fact that Quantitative Genetics will grow more and more important. Research has shown that, especially for quantitative traits (QTLs - quantitative trait loci), the markers should be better associated to measurements of the phenotype and, to be useful, data need to be obtained in field experiments with the greatest experimental accuracy. Even the GMO´s require extensive assessments of the exogenous gene in the greatest number of cultivars and in the greatest number of environments.