Plant breeding
An introduction to plant breeding.
Simple articles that explain what plant breeding is and why it is necessary, the underlying principles of plant breeding and a number of important modern techniques that have contributed to the crops we have today.
Mendel
Who was Gregor Mendel?
Mendel was an amateur scientist whose work on pea plants revolutionised our understanding of inheritance. Unfortunately the publication of his research in 1866 sunk with barely a trace. It was only in 1900 that Mendel's work was 'rediscovered' and the significance of his findings begun to be appreciated.
Gregor Mendel
Photographer: Unknown. Copyright: free
What did he discover and what did this mean for plant breeders?
Mendel uncovered the laws guiding the inheritance of measurable traits from one generation of plants to the next.
When it was finally appreciated, Mendel's work not only contributed to our knowledge of inheritance and the discovery of DNA, but also allowed plant breeding experiments to be carried out with a new scientific rigour.
One of the first traits to be bred into a crop plant using Mendel's work as a guide was resistance to a wheat disease called 'rust'. This was in the early 1900s
