These landraces provided the genetic material for modern breeders to develop varieties by enhancing traits controlling agricultural productivity and performance, such as high yield, reduced branching and resistance to biotic and abiotic stress.
Traditional varieties or landraces of rice harbour a large store of valuable genes that can be used to develop new varieties with improved yield potential, higher nutritional quality, and higher tolerance of the stresses of future climate.
The range of alleles that can be discovered via TILLING to develop new traits is unparalleled, and unlikely to be found elsewhere in the pool of germplasm accessible to plant breeders (including landraces and undomesticated relatives of the crop).
Figure 3 illustrates the scheme of converting landraces to breeding ready genetic resources.
The aim of the discovery phase was to discover the best landraces and the best seeds within these landraces to initiate the pre-bridging germplasm.
Soybean has suffered several genetic bottlenecks, such as early domestication producing lots of Asian landrace, the introduction of few landraces to North America, and modern extensive breeding activities [ 20].
Following domestication, pre-Columbian farmers selected maize landraces to suit local environments and needs [ 35].
Ongoing analyses include phenotypic characterisation of these landraces to identify functional traits associated with individual genotypes.
To explore, in depth, the transcriptional diversity in an ancient maize landrace, we developed a protocol to optimize the sequencing of cDNAs and performed 4 consecutive GS20 454 pyrosequencing runs of a cDNA library obtained from 2 week-old Palomero Toluqueño maize plants.
An intra-specific 221 F4 mapping population (ICC 7184 × ICC 15061) derived from low (desi cv. ICC 7184 with 100-seed weight 8.9 g) and high (desi cv. ICC 15061 with 30.1 g) seed weight landraces was developed by single seed descent method.
