unused natural variation can lift yield barriers in plant breeding未使用的自然变化可以在植物育种升力产生障碍.pdfVIP

Open access, freely available online PLoS BIOLOGY Unused Natural Variation Can Lift Yield Barriers in Plant Breeding * Amit Gur, Dani Zamir The Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel Natural biodiversity is an underexploited sustainable resource that can enrich the genetic basis of cultivated plants with novel alleles that improve productivity and adaptation. We evaluated the progress in breeding for increased tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) yield using genotypes carrying a pyramid of three independent yield-promoting genomic regions introduced from the drought-tolerant green-fruited wild species Solanum pennellii. Yield of hybrids parented by the pyramided genotypes was more than 50% higher than that of a control market leader variety under both wet and dry field conditions that received 10% of the irrigation water. This demonstration of the breaking of agricultural yield barriers provides the rationale for implementing similar strategies for other agricultural organisms that are important for global food security. Citation: Gur A, Zamir D (2004) Unused natural variation can lift yield barriers in plant breeding. PLoS Biol 2(10): e245. Introduction the elite inbred variety M82 (Eshed and Zamir 1995; see Knapp et al. 2004 for the new taxonomic classification of Plant evolution under domestication has led to increased tomato species in the genus Solanum). The ILs constitute an productivity, but at the same time it has narrowed the genetic ‘‘exotic library’’ where the entire wild-species genome was basis of crop s