The 

breeding principles that have proved successful with self-pollinated species are; mass
selection, pure-line selection, hybridization, with the segregating generations handled by the
pedigree method, the bulk method, or by the backcross method and development
of hybrid varieties. On the other hand, the most important principles of breeding cross-pollinated
species are; mass selection, development of hybrid varieties and development
of synthetic varieties. Therefore this academic essay intends to discuss any 5 self pollinated and
2 cross pollinated principles used in plant breeding and make suggestions of how plant yields can
be improved in the 21st century through the breeding programmes.

Breeding self-pollinated species

To begin with, in mass selection, seeds are collected from desirable appearing individuals in a
population, and the next generation is sown from the stock of mixed seed. This procedure,
sometimes referred to as phenotypic selection, is based on how each individual looks. Mass
selection has been widely used to improve old “land” varieties that is to mean varieties that have
been passed down from one generation of farmers to the next over long periods and is common
in horticulture.

A modern refinement of mass selection is to harvest the best plants separately and to grow and
compare their progenies. The poorer progenies are destroyed and the seeds of the remainder are
harvested. It should be noted that selection is now based not solely on the appearance of the
parent plants but also on the appearance and performance of their progeny (Behr,2004). Progeny
selection is usually more effective than phenotypic selection when dealing with quantitative
characters of low heritability

Another important breeding principle that has proved successful with self-pollinated species is
Pure-line selection. this principle generally involves three more or less distinct steps: firstly,
numerous superior appearing plants are selected from a genetically variable population; secondly
progenies of the individual plant selections are grown and evaluated by simple observation,
frequently over a period of several years; and thirdly when selection can no longer be made on
the basis of observation alone, extensive trials are undertaken, involving careful measurements to
determine whether the remaining selections are superior in yielding ability and other aspects of

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performance. Any progeny superior to an existing variety is then released as a new “pure-line”
variety.

Nevertheless, (Dekkers, 2002) argues that’s a variation of the pure-line selection method that
dates back centuries is the selection of single-chance variants, mutations or “sports” in the
original variety. A very large number of varieties that differ from the original strain in
characteristics such as colour, lack of thorns or barbs, dwarfness, and disease resistance have
originated in this fashion.

Furthermore, during the 20th century planned hybridization between carefully selected parents

has become dominant in the breeding of self-pollinated species. The objective of hybridization is
to combine desirable genes found in two or more different varieties and to produce pure-breeding
progeny superior in many respects to the parental types. Genes, however, are always in the
company of other genes in a collection called a genotype. The plant breeder’s problem is largely
one of efficiently managing the enormous numbers of genotypes that occur in the generations
following hybridization (Baenziger, 2006).

The development of hybrid varieties differs from hybridization in that no attempt is made to

produce a pure-breeding population; only the F1 hybrid plants are sought. The F1 hybrid of
crosses between different genotypes is often much more vigorous than its parents. This hybrid
vigour, or heterosis, can be manifested in many ways, including increased rate of growth, greater
uniformity, earlier flowering, and increased yield, the last being of greatest importance
in agriculture.

(Carlson, 2007) clearly stipulates that by far the greatest development of hybrid varieties has
been in maize, primarily because its male flowers (tassels) and female flowers (incipient ears)
are separate and easy to handle, thus proving economical for the production of hybrid seed. The
production of hand-produced F1 hybrid seed of other plants, including ornamental flowers, has
been economical only because greenhouse growers and home gardeners have been willing to pay
high prices for hybrid seed.

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Breeding cross-pollinated species

The most important methods of breeding cross-pollinated species are; development of hybrid

varieties and development of synthetic varieties. Since cross-pollinated species are naturally
hybrid (heterozygous) for many traits and lose vigour as they become purebred (homozygous), a
goal of each of these breeding methods is to preserve or restore heterozygosity.

The outstanding example of the exploitation of hybrid vigour through the use of F1 hybrid
varieties has been with corn (maize). The production of a hybrid corn variety involves three
steps: (1) the selection of superior plants; (2) selfing for several generations to produce a series
of inbred lines, which although different from each other are each pure-breeding and highly
uniform; and (3) crossing selected inbred lines.

Pollination in corn (maize) is by wind, which blows pollen from the tassels to the styles (silks)
that protrude from the tops of the ears. Thus controlled cross-pollination on a field scale can be
accomplished economically by interplanting two or three rows of the seed parent inbred with one
row of the pollinator inbred and detasselling the former before it sheds pollen. In practice most
hybrid corn is produced from “double crosses,” in which four inbred lines are first crossed in
pairs (A × B and C × D) and then the two F 1 hybrids are crossed again (A × B) × (C × D). The
double-cross procedure has the advantage that the commercial F1 seed is produced on the highly
productive single cross A × B rather than on a poor-yielding inbred, thus reducing seed costs. In
recent years cytoplasmic male sterility, described earlier, has been used to eliminate detasselling
of the seed parent, thus providing further economies in producing hybrid seed.

Another important method of breeding cross-pollinated species is through developing

synthetic varieties. A synthetic variety is developed by intercrossing a number of genotypes of
known superior combining ability that is genotypes that are known to give
superior hybrid performance when crossed in all combinations. Synthetic varieties are known for
their hybrid vigour and for their ability to produce usable seed for succeeding seasons. Because
of these advantages, synthetic varieties have become increasingly favored in the growing of
many species, such as the forage crops, in which expense prohibits the development or use of
hybrid varieties.

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The fundamental discoveries of Darwin and Mendel established the scientific basis for plant
breeding and genetics at the turn of the 20th century. Similarly, the recent integration of
advances in biotechnology, genomic research, and molecular marker applications with
conventional plant breeding practices has created the foundation for molecular plant breeding, an
interdisciplinary science that is revolutionizing 21st century crop improvement. Therefore, this
academic essay will further discuss how plant yields can be improved in the 21st century.

Molecular Plant Breeding Expands Useful Genetic Diversity for Crop Improvement

To begin with, Molecular markers and more recently, high-throughput genome sequencing
efforts, have dramatically increased knowledge of and ability to characterize genetic diversity in
the germplasm pool for essentially any crop species. Using maize as one example, surveys of
molecular marker alleles and nucleotide sequence variation have provided basic information
about genetic diversity before and after domestication from its wild ancestor teosinte, among
geographically distributed landraces, and within historically elite (Fraley, 1983).

This information enriches investigations of plant evolution and comparative genomics,

contributes to our understanding of population structure, provides empirical measures of genetic
responses to selection, and also serves to identify and maintain reservoirs of genetic variability
for future mining of beneficial alleles (Baenziger, 2006).

Molecular Plant Breeding Increases the Efficiency of Selection

Secondly, Conventional plant breeding that relies only on phenotypic selection has been
historically effective. However, for some traits, phenotypic selection has made little progress due
to challenges in measuring phenotypes or identifying individuals with the highest breeding value
(Behr, 2004).

In conclusion, the efficiency of phenotypic selection for some complex traits can be enhanced by
including physiological or biochemical phenotypes as secondary traits, if these exhibit strong
genetic correlations with the target trait and possess high heritability. Recent advances in
functional genomics permit the population-scale profiling of RNA abundance, protein levels and
activities, and metabolites that are associated with important traits.

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 REFERENCES

Baenziger, P. S. (2006). 50 years of crop breeding, genetics, and cytology . New York:
Academic Press.
Behr, C. F. (2004). Corn plants comprising event PV-ZMGT32 (NK603). Cambridge: MIT
Press.

Carlson, S. R. (2007). Meiotic transmission of an in vitro-assembled autonomous maize

minichromosome. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Dekkers, J.C.M. (2002). The use of molecular genetic in the improvement of agricultural
populations. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Fraley, R.T. (1983). Expression of bacterial genes in plant cells. Ohio: Prentice Hall.