Abstract
Plant breeders are eternal optimists, always searching for and expecting significant breakthroughs in plateaus of yield, quality, or adaptation. These breakthroughs have been achieved in some crops, notably maize (Zea mays) and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) (1); but they have been elusive in others, particularly forage crops, in which conventional breeding methods have usually produced disappointing results (2,3). With the 1937 discovery of the “colchicine technique” for inducing Polyploidy, breeders seized upon this then-unconventional technique as a means of penetrating yield barriers. Since 1937, breeders, using polyploid methods on many crops, have gone through repeated cycles of high expectations followed by low realizations. The foremost lesson to be learned from the breeders’ 40-year experience (“struggle” may be a better word) with induced Polyploidy is that it is not a panacea for plant improvement. Nevertheless, as a forage breeder-cyto-geneticist, I still look on the intelligent manipulation of Polyploidy as one of the most, if not the most, promising means of improving yields of certain crop plants, particularly the perennial forages.
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Dewey, D.R. (1980). Some Applications and Misapplications of Induced Polyploidy to Plant Breeding. In: Lewis, W.H. (eds) Polyploidy. Basic Life Sciences, vol 13. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3069-1_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3069-1_23
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