Genes, Vol. 12, Pages 1602: Metabolomics for Crop Breeding: General Considerations

Genes, Vol. 12, Pages 1602: Metabolomics for Crop Breeding: General Considerations Genes doi: 10.3390/genes12101602 Authors: Dmitry Y. Litvinov Gennady I. Karlov Mikhail G. Divashuk The development of new, more productive varieties of agricultural crops is becoming an increasingly difficult task. Modern approaches for the identification of beneficial alleles and their use in elite cultivars, such as quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and marker-assisted selection (MAS), are effective but insufficient for keeping pace with the improvement of wheat or other crops. Metabolomics is a powerful but underutilized approach that can assist crop breeding. In this review, basic methodological information is summarized, and the current strategies of applications of metabolomics related to crop breeding are explored using recent examples. We briefly describe classes of plant metabolites, cellular localization of metabolic pathways, and the strengths and weaknesses of the main metabolomics technique. Among the commercialized genetically modified crops, about 50 different metabolically altered plants have been identified in the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) database. These plants are reviewed as encouraging examples of the application of knowledge of biochemical pathways. Based on the recent examples of metabolomic studies, we discuss the performance of metabolic markers, the integration of metabolic and genomic data in metabol...
Source: Genes - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Review Source Type: research