A Roadmap from the Genomics Revolution to a New Era in Public Plant Breeding

Yunbi Xu, Senior Scientist, CIMMYT

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Launch presentation

About the speaker

Extensive experience (starting from 1982) in genetics and plant breeding, molecular genetics, genomics, and statistics in China and USA, and 10-year teaching experience in China with courses of Genetics, Plant Breeding, Quantitative Genetics, Advanced Quantitative Genetics, and Molecular Quantitative Genetics, plus three versions of textbook Quantitative Genetics
Increased responsibilities from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor to Deputy Director of the Department of Agronomy, Zhejiang University, and from postdoctoral associate at Cornell University to research scientist at RiceTec, Inc and senior scientist in CIMMYT. Active reviewer for seven international journals including Genetics, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, Crop Science, Bio/Technique, Heredity, Molecular Breeding, and Plant Breeding. Associate editor for Molecular Breeding, International Journal of Plant Genomics, and Plant Mutation.

Abstract

The road from basic genomics research to impacts in routine breeding programs has been long, windy and bumpy not to mention scattered with wrong turns and unexpected blockades. More recently, the end of the tunnel has come in sight, and the multinational corporations have ramped up their investments in and expectations from the technology. Developments in genomics and computational systems have already drastically influenced various areas of research that have the potential for diverse impacts on plant breeding, from identification, location, isolation, and pyramiding of novel genes and alleles to transferring genes from one genetic background to another. However, in the public sector we are still struggling to get on the molecular breeding highway, particularly due to insufficient critical mass of scientists innovating in the area between research outputs and routing practical applications. In this presentation we will highlight the most significant issues associated with the effective application of genomics in plant breeding together with recent progress in cereal genomics-assisted breeding at CIMMYT including seed DNA-based MAS, selective genotyping, and whole genome association mapping for quality traits and drought tolerance. The remaining rate limiting constraints and bottlenecks will be discussed along with the ultimate opportunities for molecular plant breeding.

Launch presentation