Summary

In this lesson we have covered genetic diversity and then related it to plant breeding and molecular marker projects. We also covered crop domestication and traits most selected for during artificial breeding and the importance of germplasm banks and wild relatives in this endeavor.

Key aspects to the development of genetic diversity include the criteria for selecting germplasm, the assessment and measuring of genetic diversity and the selection of appropriate parents for the crosses.

In the next module we will cover phenotyping in MAB. Keep in mind that in this module it was pointed out that the phenotype does not necessarily reflect the totality of the genotypes. Masked genotypes revealed by molecular methods can possess positive effects that are not seen in the visible phenotypes.