Fundamentals of Plant Breeding

Gerhard Wenzel ist aufgrund seiner langjährigen Tätigkeit im Fachbereich Bauaufsicht bei der Stadt Leverkusen und als Mitautor eines Kommentars zur Bauordnung NRW mit dem Thema Baulasten bestens vertraut.

All meat has been grass. This statement of the old Greeks is still valid and thus plants contribute to the needs of a growing world popula tion. Their other key role for human life is reflected by their photosynthetic activity. Intensive agriculture reduces the carbon diox ide content of the atmosphere. The improvements of cultivated plants towards stable yields and desired quality characteristics are the sub jects of plant breeding. Here, an introductory picture of the present state of this topic in research and application is given. The senior author, H. Kuckuck, wrote the first edition in 1939 as a small German booklet, hence the nickname little cuckoo (Kuckuck = Engl. cuckoo). During the last 6 years (the fifth German edition appeared in 1985) again numerous results of basic research have found practical application, making extensive additions neces sary. Further, it seemed timely to change to the international language of science: English. For help in translation we are grateful to Silke Kluth and Kathy Seaman. Since agricultural sciences - like all others - have become more specialized, we were happy to welcome D. Baringer (Sect. 5.4), W. Hondelmann (Sects. 4.4, 4.5, and 6), V. Stoy (Sect. 4.2), and T. Thtlioglu (Sects. 2.3.1.4 and 3.5) as contributors to this edition. Finally, we would like to thank Springer-Verlag for all their efforts in helping to transform a small German booklet into a book available to a wider audience.

1 Introduction.- 2 Basic Breeding Methods.- 2.1 Selection Breeding.- 2.2 Combination Breeding.- 2.3 Hybrid Breeding.- 2.4 Synthetic Varieties.- 2.5 Cited and Recommended Literature for Chapter 2.- 3 Special Breeding and Selection Techniques.- 3.1 Production and Use of Mutants.- 3.2 Use of Periclinal Chimeras.- 3.3 Selection Breeding in Apomicts.- 3.4 Production and Use of Haploids.- 3.5 Sex Inheritance and Its Consequences for Plant Breeding.- 3.6 Other Forms of Genome and Gene Combinations.- 3.7 Special Selection Procedures.- 3.8 Cited and Recommended Literature for Chapter 3.- 4 Plant Breeding and Plant Production.- 4.1 Plant Breeding and Farming Systems.- 4.2 Plant Breeding and Plant Physiology.- 4.3 Plant Breeding and Plant Pathology.- 4.4 Breeding of Industrial Crop Species.- 4.5 Plant Breeding for Developing Countries.- 4.6 Cited and Recommended Literature for Chapter 4.- 5 The Plant Breeding Station.- 5.1 Tools for Plant Breeding.- 5.2 Classical Maintenance Breeding.- 5.3 New Forms of Maintenance Breeding.- 5.4 Plant Breeders Rights, Variety Listing and Seed Control Systems.- 5.5 Cited and Recommended Literature for Chapter 5.- 6 Safeguarding and Utilization of Natural Genetic Diversity.- 6.1 Genetic Vulnerability of Crop Plants.- 6.2 Landraces and Wild Species.- 6.3 Centers of Diversity.- 6.4 Genetic Conservation.- 6.5 Cited and Recommended Literature for Chapter 6.