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Cassava breeding: opportunities and challenges

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Abstract

Although cassava is a major food crop, its scientific breeding began only recently compared with other crops. Significant progress has been achieved, particularly in Asia where cassava is used mainly for industrial processes and no major biotic constraints affect its productivity. Cassava breeding faces several limitations that need to be addressed. The heterozygous nature of the crop and parental lines used to generate new segregating progenies makes it difficult to identify parents with good breeding values. Breeding so far has been mainly based on a mass phenotypic recurrent selection. There is very little knowledge on the inheritance of traits of agronomic relevance. Several approaches have been taken to overcome the constraints in the current methodologies for the genetic improvement of cassava. Evaluations at early stages of selection allow for estimates of general combining ability effect or breeding values of parental lines. Inbreeding by sequential self-pollination facilitates the identification of useful recessive traits, either already present in the Manihot gene pool or induced by mutagenesis.

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Abbreviations

AEZ:

agro-ecological zone

AYT:

advanced yield trial

CBSD:

cassava brown streak dise-ase

CET:

clonal evaluation trial

CG:

cyanogenic glucosides

CMD:

cassava mosaic disease

DH:

doubled-haploids

DMC:

dry matter content

FRY:

fresh root yield

GCA:

general combining ability

HI:

harvest index

IITA:

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

LAC:

Latin America and the Caribbean

PPD:

post-harvest physiological deterioration

PT:

plant type or architecture

PYT:

preliminary yield trial

RT:

regional trials

SCA:

specific I combining ability

SED:

rating for superelongation disease

SI:

selection index

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Author notes

  1. Carlos A. Iglesias

    Present address: Weaver Popcorn Company, Indiana, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Apartado Aéreo 6713, Colombia

    Hernán Ceballos, Carlos A. Iglesias & Juan C. Pérez

  2. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Cali, Colombia

    Alfred G.O. Dixon

Authors
  1. Hernán Ceballos
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  2. Carlos A. Iglesias
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  3. Juan C. Pérez
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  4. Alfred G.O. Dixon
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Correspondence to Hernán Ceballos.

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Ceballos, H., Iglesias, C.A., Pérez, J.C. et al. Cassava breeding: opportunities and challenges. Plant Mol Biol 56, 503–516 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11103-004-5010-5

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