Climate-resilient crops: Integration of molecular tools into conventional breeding

Crop production is negatively impacted by climate change, which may increase yield losses and reduce the output of crops that are subjected to harsh environmental conditions.Therefore, we need to develop climate-resilient crop varieties to cope with abiotic and biotic stresses. Plant breeding has successfully developed improved crop varieties by applying conventional tools and methodologies where plants are selected based on superior performances (phenotypes). Numerous external environmental factors can affect plant phenotypes, which reduces the accuracy of selection based solely on phenotypic expression. Furthermore, it is time-consuming, and challenging to investigate complex traits like abiotic and biotic stress tolerance/resistance. To mitigate this issue, genomics equips plant breeders with cutting-edge molecular techniques for genome-wide study and makes genotype-phenotype analysis possible. This facilitates the precise and efficient development of climate-resilient crop varieties using genomic approaches, like ‘genomic selection’, ‘marker-assisted selection’ (MAS), ‘marker-assisted backcrossing’ (MABC), ‘quantitative trait loci’ (QTL) mapping and ‘genome editing’. These high-throughput modern techniques help to identify important traits, provide better insight into genetic diversity, and significantly accelerate breeding programs. Moreover, revolutionary technology like ‘CRISPR-Cas9’-mediated genome editing allows precise gene editing, accelerating the breeding process significantly. ‘High-throughput phenotyping’ (HTP), ‘genomic selection’, and MAS help to select specific traits that are responsible for enhanced crop production, stress tolerance, and improved disease resistance. Such molecular tools are invaluable for transferring complex traits affected by various environmental conditions. Ensuring food security and addressing the challenges of climate change, the integration of advanced molecular tools with conventional breeding is essential to produce climate-resilient crops.