Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding
Growth in large germplasm collections in most important
crops has led to the development of the concept of core
collection or a smaller set of germplasm representing most
spectrum of variability of total collections to facilitate their
easy management, evaluation and use in crop improvement.
In the last two decades, significant efforts have been made
in this direction, following nearly identical sampling or
selection strategies in most crops. The present article has
tried to analyze critically the selection methodologies
followed to assess how far core collections in different
crops have succeeded in meeting the objectives, particularly
those of crop genetic improvement. An attempt has also
been made to address the possible ways for improvement
in the selection strategy with additional steps to overcome
the lacunas. Groundnut cores have been critically analyzed
as a case study. This has revealed that cores have been
able to capture only around 70% of variability, which has
limited the value of core with non-capture of rare alleles. To
overcome present lacunas, a modified stratification method
has been suggested based on biogeographical distribution,
and integration of gene pools (sets) of various desirable
traits in the selection of accessions to formulate the core
set. Greater emphasis needs to be given to genomics and
characterization of accessions, particularly in relation to
desired traits, using molecular markers associated with
these traits to avoid masking effect caused by environment
factors.
Keywords: Gene pool, collection, core collection, minicore collection, plant genetic resources, use in crop breeding
Year: 2017
Volume: 77
Issue: 3
Article DOI: 10.5958/0975-6906.2017.00045.1
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906
Anurudh K. Singh info_circle
S. N. Nigam info_circle
Download PDF